Reckoning Hour - my first map

[CblBOPOTKA]

Boom-compatible marble & metal styled map, it contains some portion of platforming, puzzles and it is full of slaughter-ish fights. You will need to show your skill and sometimes ingenuity. Watch carefully, as the reckoning hour has come.

 

IWAD: Doom 2

Map: MAP01

Tested in: PrBoom+, GZDoom

Expected: no jumping/crouching, no freelook, complevel 9, SAVES

Difficulty settings: not worked on it much, it feels harder than Scythe, but not harder than Scythe 2

Build time: 2 weeks (GZDoom Builder)

 

 

Updated version: 2021/04/16

Spoiler

- In the mancubi pit changed trigger to imps spawn

 

More screenshots

Spoiler

 

Download: rh_20210416.zip

Edited April 18, 2021 by neurocore

[El Inferno]

Tried to do some blind runs of this map - I was curious how far I can get. Got to the av area twice, didn't understand what to do and died there. Will try again some other time (probably with saves). 

 

[CblBOPOTKA]

6 hours ago, El Inferno said:

Tried to do some blind runs of this map - I was curious how far I can get. Got to the av area twice, didn't understand what to do and died there. Will try again some other time (probably with saves). 

 

Playing this without saves will be a special challenge, as in most places you'll need to be concentrated. Thanks for playing! 

[ElPadrecitoCholo]

@neurocore Hey dude, I have a little problem...

 

Spoiler

What else am I supposed to do in this part? I've already killed them all and flipped the switches but it doesn't seem like anything is happening, and in case you're wondering, the port I play is Zandronum.

 

 

[CblBOPOTKA]

47 minutes ago, ElPadrecitoCholo said:

@neurocore Hey dude, I have a little problem...

 

  Reveal hidden contents

What else am I supposed to do in this part? I've already killed them all and flipped the switches but it doesn't seem like anything is happening, and in case you're wondering, the port I play is Zandronum.

 

 

I still see some sweet suit ;)

[Degree23]

What exactly are you supposed to do after that screenshot? The ledges are surrounded by Imps and you have no PG/BFG to blast your way through.

[CblBOPOTKA]

56 minutes ago, Degree23 said:

What exactly are you supposed to do after that screenshot? The ledges are surrounded by Imps and you have no PG/BFG to blast your way through.

Spoiler

Next logical step is to catch the moment when imps are starting to spawn. And to climb up before they are not filled up whole arena

 

[Degree23]

Given that it's not at all obvious what the switch does, and that it may do something down in the pit, and that it doesn't take long to kill the enemies down there, I don't think it's logical for people to spend a few seconds wandering around down there to see if anything happens. I didn't realise anything had spawned in until fireballs started coming down, by which time it's too late.

[CblBOPOTKA]

8 minutes ago, Degree23 said:

Given that it's not at all obvious what the switch does, and that it may do something down in the pit, and that it doesn't take long to kill the enemies down there, I don't think it's logical for people to spend a few seconds wandering around down there to see if anything happens. I didn't realise anything had spawned in until fireballs started coming down, by which time it's too late.

Maybe it will be better to show to player immediately what do his actions lead to, i'll think about that.

Solution is:

Spoiler

imps are started to spawn when you shoot anywhere in the pit (it was intended that player will shoot to button)

 

[Biodegradable]

 

[CblBOPOTKA]

@Biodegradable Thanks for such detailed overview! Now i understand that this point is quite confusing and need to be fixed (i'll try to upload fixed version today). What about the progression:
 

Spoiler

My failt, i expected that shooting in pit area as a trigger is a good idea (unusual behavior), but looks like it is hard to conceive when imps started to spawn

 

[Degree23]

Biodegradable's video highlights many good points. I have to say, I COMPLETELY forgot that you said this was your first map. Playing through this map made me feel like I was playing through a map made by someone who's made a few already and has worked past all the "newbie" things that happen to first maps. (Misaligned textures, all rectangular rooms, etc)

 

+ The platforming at the start is honestly fine I think. It's not to everyone's taste, but it is near the start of the map, and there are teleporters to get you back up if you fall, so it's fairly low risk. (Also it's your map, if you like platforming, then put it in!)

+ The first AV maze is a great fight. You don't have any RL/PG/BFG to be able to quickly kill them, so you have to SSG and run. There's enough AVs to keep you on your toes, but not so many that you can get cornered too easily, and overall I thought that was a very balanced encounter. Not to mention the neat way of lowering the key.

+ The circular room with the blue/yellow/red doors was amazing. It took me a minute to work out just what was going on with this section.

+ The final room with the teleporters to be able to telefrag the Cyberdemons was cool. I also like how this room will punish you if you were lazy in clearing out some previous sections as you can be shot at by monsters from a couple of areas if you didn't kill them on your way through. This is something I'd like to see in more maps actually. I love watching speedruns of maps, but this is actually a good way to incentivise not just running past encounters.

 

- The Imp room has a few problems with it. It's not clear what the corner switches do, or why there's an Invulnerability sphere there. A possible fix for that is to have the Invulnerability appear in the pit after you hit the switch, and have the switch also lower the lift at the same time. This makes it clear that you need to head back up, and you have enough time to clear a path through the Imps before you start taking damage again. I think you could easily reduce the number of Imps in this area though. They were teleporting in for ages and I eventually ran out of Rockets and just had to take the lift to the next section. By the time I returned later in the map, there were probably still 80 or so Imps there.

- The long passage with Hell Knights, Barons and Mancubii is also fairly tough, but this is a classic slaughtermap setup and the first bit is probably fine. I was a bit confused by the second bit as I wasn't sure why you had 4 Cyberdemons guarding a Megasphere. It's easy enough to run past them to pick up the BFG, and they also don't infight with anything in the previous section. Anyone who's made it this far will have no problem clearing them out, so I don't know what they accomplish that 1 or 2 Cyberdemons wouldn't.

- In the final section where you are gradually fighting your way up to the exit, the section with the AVs is brutal. A natural reaction to fighting AVs is to run for cover, but when you do that, all that happens is that the pillars disappear and reveal more AVs and once you do that, you're doomed. It's the kind of room that you can't recover from if you make a mistake. I was also quite low on ammo entering this area, and the encounters really depend on you being able to use the RL/BFG.

 

For a first map, it's a really good effort. I think this is shown by the fact that comments so far are around progression and balancing, which a lot of first maps are simply too basic to even worry about.

[CblBOPOTKA]

@Degree23 Thanks for analysis!
- Imps room was planned to be a place where player forced to fight back against horde of weak monsters waiting when next door will open. So to make it clearer, i'll fix just the trigger that starts to spawn imps - it will be just switch in the pit. I believe that invul sphere placed well, because touching invul always kinda risky (player must expect that it placed for some reason)
- There is 4 cybers and they not infighting with other previous monsters. Reason is simple - to make speedrunner's live little harder ;) On the other hand there is enough cells to destroy al cybers.

- AV area. I always forget about saveless players. But someone may think that words "platforming" and "slaughter-ish" mean that you can save in some places) I don't blame them. As i remember, arena consists of 4x100 cells and 4x20 minicells, so player has 480 plasma. One shoot for one AV gives 40*8 = 320 plasma. So, probably won't change anything here.

Anyway, thank you for that kind words)

[ElPadrecitoCholo]

Reckoning Hour

 

Ultra-Violence || Zandronum || Vanilla

 

Status:

Deaths → 11

Saves → 3

 

 

The map turned out to be quite entertaining, I really liked the way everything ended up being in the end, from the architecture used and concepts of certain structures of some rooms, such as the initial areas, the large killing area with all those Hell Knights and Mancubus, or even the part where the huge killing area is, all those areas have interesting details, and some really intense fighting. Speaking of the fighting, a lot of the areas become really difficult in the beginning, and in truth it takes some saves to make progress, because coming and trying to repeat everything from scratch is very painful... the great amount of enemies, and the limited starting ammo is not much help to want to replay the map over and over again. In summary, it is an interesting map, although with some defects found, with a somewhat unfair difficulty in some parts, that simply playing it 100% purist is almost impossible, if not entirely, and a sense of progression a little strange for the platforming and automap thing, so a good effort you gave this map, mate, but I really hope your next Wads don't turn out to be like this Wad, and that they focus more on something not so complex and with a well-marked progression, and without any exaggerated combats like the part of the Imps or the Hell Knights and Barons of Hell that attack the Marine in a straight line.

[CblBOPOTKA]

@ElPadrecitoCholo Well done! Thanks for playing this. You pointed correctly that feeling of progression here is probably the weakest part. Initially this map was a batch of ideas i want to implement. Not so right approach to build a map. Anyway i glad you enjoyed.

[ElPadrecitoCholo]

17 hours ago, neurocore said:

@ElPadrecitoCholo Well done! Thanks for playing this. You pointed correctly that feeling of progression here is probably the weakest part. Initially this map was a batch of ideas i want to implement. Not so right approach to build a map. Anyway i glad you enjoyed.

 

You're welcome, and if, to a great extent, it is the weakest part of the map, maximum the part of the platform or making a small initial slaughter without enough ammunition, among other things that I highlight, but hey, after all it was an interesting Map experiment to test mate, although I am hopeful that you have the potential to create good maps without having to put much of what you've done here.

[1Destro3456]

I can't download the newest version because Google Drive tells me to request access to it

[CblBOPOTKA]

7 hours ago, 1Destro3456 said:

I can't download the newest version because Google Drive tells me to request access to it

 

Thank you for pointing this out. I updated initial post with direct link