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Doomkid

RAY MOHAWK 2 - Development Thread

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I've been keeping up with the wad for a little while.  Seeing that slot 10 is open and I have free time for the next few weeks, I would be interested in claiming it if no one has.

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Here's my Map: Vacation Gone Wrong.

HitBoi-Mohawk2.wad

Info:
Map Slot: 15.
Music: Edited version of "How'd I Do?" from ROTT, orignal song by Lee Jackson.
Build Time: Something like 5 or 4 hours.
Comment: This map includes 4 locations:

- A Building.
- Very Small Island.
- Techbase.
- Giant Flesh Thing.


Screenshots:

Spoiler

VcrjFVq.png

kHsmm4e.png

Rc69gvb.png

 

Edited by Hitboi

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9 hours ago, Doomkid said:

You know, that’s a perfectly valid point, and would be reasonably easy to fix.

 

I pretty much did it this way because the flamethrower needed it’s own dedicated ammo, but swapping them should be as simple as changing some of the spawn frames and then swapping the weapons in each map respectively. I’ll get to work on that and unless it’s for some reason too difficult to do, it will be changed for the next release.

 

Thanks for your answer and for looking into it!

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11 hours ago, Doomkid said:

I pretty much did it this way because the flamethrower needed it’s own dedicated ammo, but swapping them should be as simple as changing some of the spawn frames and then swapping the weapons in each map respectively. I’ll get to work on that and unless it’s for some reason too difficult to do, it will be changed for the next release. 

 

Dehacked does allow for changing which weapon uses which ammo, but I recall having other ammo-related trouble when I tried that myself... such as the game switching to weapon 4 when running out of cells, even though weapon 4 is now using cells too... stuff like that. Swapping the flamethrower and the plasma cannon may still be worth a try though. Maybe there will be no side effects, or maybe there will be some, but still not as annoying as the cell cannon getting auto-selected all the time.

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Revision 2 (and 3) for Map 15.

HitBoi-Mohawk2-V2.wad (V2)
HitBoi-Mohawk2-V3.wad (V3)

Changes:
- Added some monsters near exit area (Rev 2).
- A few details and ammo added (Rev 2).
- More monsters (Rev 3).
 

Spoiler

@Doomkid In Map01, there's the area where you collect the first Super-Charge in the map, however I see a Mega-Sphere at the same area where the Super-Charge belongs to, I think the Mega-Sphere is supposed to only appear on specific difficulty/difficulties, same thing applies to the Super-Charge.

Anyway, I like these maps, and the arsenal aswell.

Edited by Hitboi

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@Hitboi A fun little map, well built and too good not to use. It's a bit on the easy/short side for slot 15, so I've put it in slot 11 and moved the other maps back a space. It feels a little different from the other maps submitted, it has a "traditional Doom map" feel which is a good thing, the variety is exactly what I want. Well done!

 

Now all we need is a "flame centric" map from @DFF in slot 10 and we should be good to go! I'm also swapping the weapon slots of the cell cannon and flamethrower presently - going to do some testing for a bit, and if all works as planned, I'll go through each map in Doom Builder and auto-replace all the cell cannons and flamethrowers (so that everything is where the mapper intended, in other words).

 

We're so close to RC1! Oh, and of course, if there are any other maps to be submitted even a bit down the road, they can be added to the bonus map lineup. If as many people are working on maps as I think, there may be a 5 map mini-episode of bonus maps, which would definitely be cool.

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38 minutes ago, Doomkid said:

We're so close to RC1! Oh, and of course, if there are any other maps to be submitted even a bit down the road, they can be added to the bonus map lineup. If as many people are working on maps as I think, there may be a 5 map mini-episode of bonus maps, which would definitely be cool.

Is there a set compatibility level for the bonus maps? I know that the rudy2 maps included in the bonus wad were boom compatible.

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It'll be the same for this wad, Boom/Limit Removing for the bonus maps (both here and in Rudy2 I didn't initially plan on bonus maps, but I got good Boom-format submissions and I thought they were simply too good not to use)

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13 minutes ago, Doomkid said:

It'll be the same for this wad, Boom/Limit Removing for the bonus maps

Thanks, as much as playing in dosbox has grown on me, I still can't play more that half an hour in dosbox (Or Chocolate) without feeling a slight amount of motion sickness.

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5 hours ago, Doomkid said:

It feels a little different from the other maps submitted, it has a "traditional Doom map" feel which is a good thing, the variety is exactly what I want. Well done!

Thanks for the kind words, I made the map when I only played Map01, so I expected the more maps get harder, the more mid-tier enemies are needed.
After playing some of these maps, I got the idea of this map pack.

Edited by Hitboi

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General sort of question but is specific for my map, is it fine if the map has visplane overflow areas as long as they are outside the playable area? Like the only way it would crash vanilla ports would be if the player nocliped out of the map? I suppose i'm don't fully understand what happens with a visplane overflow, just that i should remove them. I think i had a small area like that in my Rowdy Rudy map.

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Another bunch of more general thoughts. (Will try to write more map feedback tomorrow.)

 

On having more than 20 maps.

If Doomkid wants, there is an easy way to fit one or two additional maps into the main progression. It is possible to borrow a page from the Antares031's book and make an obligatory secret exit on map15, making map31 (and maybe map 32) a part of the main progression. Personally, I am big fan of Peccatum Mihzamiz's map and feel a little bit sad that this amazing map will be relegated to a bonus slot. But I understand that this question is not for me to decide.

 

On flamethrower/cell cannon interface switch.

I very much like the change itself, but I feel a bit sad that this switch will require map changes (Replacing weapon pick-ups). Right now the Ray2 files work very smoothly as a Vanilla weapon mod, because weapons correspond well to their ammo type. If the mapper places Plasma rifle and plasma cells, I will get Cell cannon and Cells. Ditto for Rockets+RL and Fuel+Flamethrower. But with the suggested change, the Plasma Rifle pick up will become a flamethrower. Now, when launching some random WAD with Ray2 "Mod" I risk getting a flamethrower with no fuel ammo, if the mapper decides to place only Plasma rifle, but no Rockets. This will be rather non ideal, and will negatively impact the use of Ray2 files to modify other, non Ray2 maps. Perhaps there is a way to make the weapon switch, while preserving the weapon pick-up things? I never worked with Dehacked, or Doom maps, but I know that Maskim Xul Wad (Doomwiki page) has normal, slot 4 Vanilla chaingun, while using "Chaingunners" which drop Rocket Launchers. I also remember reading Ribbiks' blogpost about weirdness of doom Pick-up items. So maybe there is a way to switch Cell Cannon and Flamethrower without editing maps? I think, such approach to weapon replacement may be worthwhile. (If it is possible at all, of course.)

 

About introducing the flamethrower to the player.

As of now, "Temple del Sol" by @Moustachio has only cell cannon as a power-weapon (because at first "Temple del Sol" was planned for slot 04, for which most power weapons were dissallowed). And it feels a bit boring to play a long map with only one type of high powered weapon. So I thought about adding the flamethrower on "Temple del Sol". The map has a mix of open areas and relatively closed rooms. Perfect combination to learn the strengths and limitations of the flamethrower! Moustachio and Doomkid, what do you think about such change? Would it be good or bad?

(Again, I understand that this question is not for me to decide, but I thought that idea of flamethrower on "Temple del Sol" sounds interesting.)

 

 

Edited by Azure_Horror

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Well here's my map PhilRM2bonus.zip


Title: Trippy Entryway in the Sky?!
Map slot: Bonus Map 2
Music track: midi rendition of "Field of Hopes & Dreams" from Deltarune Chapter 1 
Difficulty settings: Yes
Tested with: Crispy Doom
Known bugs: Will not run on Chocolate or DOS doom because of too many scrolling wall linedefs

 

Feedback is welcome :)

 

Spoiler

Screenshot_65.png.1ddaf29fdfa465c32cf94403510a33b9.pngScreenshot_66.png.f949abb4abc116a0edabb87747c68ac0.png

 

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Map20 - "Ray of Hope" by Scypek (Played on UV)
 

On 6/3/2021 at 8:57 PM, Scypek2 said:

Alright, I guess I can submit something playable now!

 

Ray of hope

 

I really like the final battle, the spiderdemon encounter, and the doomcute bits. Not sure about all the rest. Maybe you'll have some thoughts on what to improve and how. I left the outdoors underdecorated, they could probably use some changes either way. I'm also not sure if the battles are sufficiently epic for the final level, but since the story is about clearing out the remainder of the infestation, maybe it's appropriate for the final mission to feature relatively small groups of the toughest monsters instead of giant hordes of cannon fodder. I sprinkled in some dead monsters near the start with that in mind. 

Very interesting map, I like it very much. "Ray of Hope" feels like Doom 1 - inspired exploration map, but full of cyberdemons and some brutal Final-doom style madness. The opportunity to stab the first cyberdemon to death is noted and much appreciated. Overall, this map encourages you to think carefully about your arsenal and your options, which is very fitting for a final map of a WAD. The comabt is brutal, but it is less crazy, than on the previous three maps, which is a nice change of pace. And the last stage of the final boss fight is super-creative (I won't spoil it for those who did not play the map yet).

 

Now I want to present some questions and suggestions about the map.

 

1) About spiderdemon fight. It is rather easy with blur secret, or the hiding spot at the blue armor secret. But I don't get how to win this battle without secrets. Is  secret hunting deliberately made into the only viable strategy, or am I missing something? Also, is it intended that the only clue to the blur secret can be seen after the Spider fight?

 

2) For the blue key fight, it seems that hiding behind the viewer tribune is very easy. But to the south of the tribune there is enough space for a spider mastermind. I think that adding a spider mastermind there could make the fight much more interesting.

 

3) About the overall balance of items. It is very easy to use all the bonus health and blue armor items before the final fight. This can complicate the first playthrough, especially if the player relies on a single save slot per map. Is such situation intended? I feel it is not ideal, because it feels especially punishing to semi-casual UV-continuous players, while impacting pistol starters and more careful save-users much less.

 

4) About the final boss. Firstly, I would suggest adding a medkit or two at the starting rooftop. Playing the first phase of this fight with no blue armor and no healing items feels brutal. Second, as far as I know, winning the fight is impossible without SR40. Yes, SR40 is a rather basic technique, but some casual players playing on IaTYTD or HNTR may be very sloppy with straferunning, so it feels a bit unfair to require such technique for the climactic fight of the WAD.

 

5) Finally, I suggest replacing the starting medkit with a berserk. The first 2 encounters are easily won with a pistol, so berserk would not break any balance and only add a fun alternative strategy to start a map.

 

6) I found two bugs. First, pressing space on a lift before Spider battle will lower all floors to the ground level. Second, the last door before the last set of barrels near the end does not open on complevel 2.

 

7) About the decoration of outdoor area. This idea will need approval of other mappers from the project. How about placing the map posters from other maps on the flat walls around the outside area? It will be very fitting for a final map of the WAD!

 

BTW, the Doomcute on "Ray of Hope" is amazing! I especially like the basketball game and the slot machine!

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@DFF, if the player has to cheat to cause a crash, then that's still passable - two of my maps have VPO spots outside the playable area. No crashes during normal play (in chocolate or vanilla) is all I'm aiming for.

 

@Philnemba Thanks for the bonus map submission, really glad to have you as part of this project!

 

@Azure_Horror Unfortunately, it's not viable for me to include Peccatum's map as part of the main lineup (as much as I'd like to). It causes crashes out the wazoo in vanilla and chocolate, which is what the limitation all the other mappers were restrained to, not to mention vanilla compatibility has been one of the fundamental goals of this project from square one. Don't think of maps as being "relegated to bonus status" - being a bonus map is in no way reflective of the quality of the map, just the compatibility!

 

As for the cell cannon/flamethrower topic, once the main project is complete, I'll happily release an "alt version" of the weapons and enemies that has the slots swapped, it was (thankfully) a pretty trivial adjustment, aside from having to manually edit each map.

 

Finally, on the topic of including the flamethrower maybe 2/3rd of the way through @Moustachio's map, I'll leave that entirely up to him - I definitely see merit to the idea, but I'll leave that ball wholly in his court for the moment. (Maybe it could be "teased" - it's there, but ammo is very scarce, but then Map10 will be full-on flame action, similar to how Map03 introduces the cell cannon then Map04 lets you go crazy with it).

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Alright, time for a new build in a pinch!

 

https://doomshack.org/uploads/mohawk2n.zip

 

This build now includes HitBoi's map in slot 11, with the only opening being slot 10 which DFF is working on presently.

 

I fixed some vanilla-crash-causing issues on Voltcom's map, and made some minor adjustments to UberGewei's map as well, mainly by adding a small smattering of enemies, but not enough to have an impact on balance. I also did some tweaks to my maps, and some of the MIDI files to make them work better under DOS.

 

NOTE: If any mappers are going to do further edits to their maps, please use the maps in this wad as a basis. I had to go through and manually swap all the Plasma Rifle/RL spawn points, so to ensure that cricual changes are not lost, use these versions as a basis for future edits! (Also a couple maps (02 and 06) had minor crashes or other issues that needed to be fixed and I've done so).

 

As far as I'm aware, the only things that need to be changed before RC1 are the following:

 

 

• NeedHealth's map needs to be adjusted for vanilla compat & have difficulty settings implemented,

 

• DFF's map is needed for slot 10 (obviously),

 

• There are a few minor "weird bits" of @Scypek2's map that I'd like to see adjusted slightly, mainly the big "sky wall thing" and "monsters being spawned from mid-air above a random pillar", but maybe some points Azure Horror raised as well,

 

• Uber's map may need more minor adjusting: When the player gets the red key, they're left with nothing to fight and no clear hints as to where to go next - they have to wander around for 10+ mins or so until they stumble across the red door which is less than ideal (as it's quite hidden/easy to skip past), but this could be easily fixed with a teleporter or some visual cues,

 

• There's a handful of textures which cause tutti-frutti in vanilla which may or may not be fixed before release depending on if I can be bothered to fix 'em,

 

• I need to make a mapinfo for the main wad & bonus wad (pretty easy to do),

 

...and I think that's all that really warrants mention!

 

 

Peccatum Mihzamiz and Philnemba's maps have officially been split into a non-vanilla bonus wad, just as was done for Rowdy Rudy 2. If things pan out they may be joined by two more bonus maps, but who knows if they'll ever get made at this point. Regardless - just like the two bonus maps for Rudy 2 - they're certainly fun enough on their own to constitute a "proper expansion"!

 

That's it for now! We're so close I can almost taste it...

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My map isn't a huge one, so it may not fully demonstrate the limitations of the flamethrower, but i wanted to focus on 2 things, hordes and beefy enemies, things the flamethrower can chew through easily. 

Here is a screenshot of what i have so far, somewhat of a science lab on a atoll. One thing i found is that due to sightlines, no visplane overflow is created, but on choc doom there can be some screen tears on longer views. not sure if an issue but i can work around that if needed to be fixed.

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Don't worry about HOMs/screen tearing, DFF. So long as there's no crashes (and it's not unplayably full of HOMs) then that's totally fine.

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2 hours ago, Doomkid said:

Unfortunately, it's not viable for me to include Peccatum's map as part of the main lineup (as much as I'd like to). It causes crashes out the wazoo in vanilla and chocolate, which is what the limitation all the other mappers were restrained to, not to mention vanilla compatibility has been one of the fundamental goals of this project from square one. Don't think of maps as being "relegated to bonus status" - being a bonus map is in no way reflective of the quality of the map, just the compatibility!

It is a bit sad that Peccatum's map heavily breaks Vanilla compat. It is one of the few maps allowing with slow-paced, but BFG-intensive combat. On top of my head, only "Pier pressure" has similar BFG gameplay. (Vile Island, for example, does not. Its BFG fights are very fast paced)

 

40 minutes ago, Doomkid said:

Alright, time for a new build in a pinch! 

 

https://doomshack.org/uploads/mohawk2n.zip

 

This build now includes HitBoi's map in slot 11, with the only opening being slot 10 which DFF is working on presently.

 

I fixed some vanilla-crash-causing issues on Voltcom's map, and made some minor adjustments to UberGewei's map as well, mainly by adding a small smattering of enemies, but not enough to have an impact on balance. I also did some tweaks to my maps, and some of the MIDI files to make them work better under DOS.

Is the gauntlets buff included in the new version? Unbuffed version felt very gimmicky and rather useless for any moderatly intense encounter. I prefer the non-berserk knife to the old version of the gauntlets.

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Sorry for jumping in, not trying this WAD and not reading the comments is a bad form, but does Map 20 feel more like an epic finale, unlike Rowdy 2 where all you get is a switch?

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Azure_Horror, I did bump the gauntlets up a bit in terms of power. They could go up another notch if still not enough, but I’ll wait and see.

 

Dimon12321, the conclusion feels like a “proper finale” definitely. I can’t believe it never occurred to me that the ending of Rudy 2 was so anti climactic, with even the first wad having a grander sendoff. That was a big oversight on my part.

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Could 17 and 19 be swapped? I realize 19 is more difficult but the more compact, focused nature (it's deliberately built around basically three weapons) doesn't really have a "penultimate map" feel to it, compared to 17's bigger-scale chaos. Continuous players having the BFG will also be able to defang the current 19 in the 17 slot anyway. 


Btw Azure_Horror, if you pistol start those maps, I am generally a lot more interested in HMP feedback; lower difficulties tend to be undertested in most wads. I'm also not the "uses suggestions that go into creative liberty" type (beyond project mappers + project runners I mean) -- I like keeping creative autonomy. :P Good feedback so far though. 

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3 hours ago, rd. said:

Btw Azure_Horror, if you pistol start those maps, I am generally a lot more interested in HMP feedback; lower difficulties tend to be undertested in most wads. I'm also not the "uses suggestions that go into creative liberty" type (beyond project mappers + project runners I mean) -- I like keeping creative autonomy. :P Good feedback so far though. 

HMP feedback about Vile Island

 

The map was completed first try without sound and without saves, with megaspheres and supercharges to spare. My gut tells that difficulty is correct for HMP, given that the difficulty is called "Playing For Fun". Be warned though: my gut may be mistken! I am able to oneshot the UV version of start pretty consistently, so I may be not the best judge for the HMP playthroughs.

 

More detailed feedback:

- IMHO, hmp has too much bulk cells. It is correct that HMP has more ammo that UV, but I think that about 50% additional Bulk Cells should be replaced with something else. Maybe small cells, maybe bullet boxes. (The blaster is the best weapon for mopping up Cybers and Archviles, and I did run low on bullets after completing the beginning).

- I am a bit iffy about archviles spawning in on the BFG pick up. There are 4 of them, right?  I would consider reducing their number to 2, and replacing them with barons. Edit: I meant replacing 4 archviles with a combo of 2 barons and 2 archviles.

- If the beginning would be deemed to hard, I suggest correcting it a large shell box and ammo clips. Monster count and composition feels correct.

- I am somewhat conflicted about the archvile flood in the final fight. My gut tells me that this part can feel unfair on a blind playthrough, but I dunno...

 

Horrible suggestion for a map name (with a lame reference to a silly jole from one great wad)

Spoiler

Many Archviles desire 32 Sunny holidays

 

 

BTW, the weapon slot replacement works a bit weirdly. After depleting the current weapon the game does not autoswitch me to slot 6 anymore, despite the flamethrower being available and fuel being present. On the other hand, it does not not switch me to a cell cannon anymore, so that's a plus.

Edited by Azure_Horror : spelling

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When do the bonus maps need to be finished, I think everyone working on them would be interested in knowing when they need to be done.  Sorry if you already have listed a time frame and I haven't seen it.  

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@Azure_Horror I am delighted that you think so highly of my map. Thanks!

 

I fully agree with the decision to put the map in a bonus slot in order to keep compatibility. I regard it as a privilege to even be included after not delivering a vanilla compatible map, more than anything else :).

 

When I joined this project the rules were clear. I would not want this project to be changed because of one map, especially at a late stage in the process.

 

Hyped that the project is nearing completion, woohoo!

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14 hours ago, Doomkid said:

"monsters being spawned from mid-air above a random pillar"

 

They're spawning on an invisible pillar on top of the switch that activates the four lift sequence, so that they'd appear in front of the Icon's head hole despite it being an upper texture you can walk under! The only issue I see is that the cubes seem to spawn slightly above the hole instead of right in front of it... also, I just discovered a whole new bug while testing the above: the teleport to the final arena is meant to approximate a seamless transition on top of a 3D building, but somehow the two elevator shafts ended up with completely different textures...

 

On 9/21/2021 at 9:02 PM, Azure_Horror said:

About spiderdemon fight. It is rather easy with blur secret, or the hiding spot at the blue armor secret. But I don't get how to win this battle without secrets.

 

Huh. I didn't even think of either of those options. It's cool that they're there! The true solution, believe it or not, is to stunlock all three spiders at once by holding down the trigger and swinging your blaster like crazy. It's super satisfying when you pull it off, but sadly it's too unreliable and depends on the player's mouse sensitivity as well. So I intend to limit the fight to only two spiders on UV and even less on lower skills. Thank you for your detailed feedback!

 

With NaNoWADMo around the corner, I better get around to updating this map first...

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@rd. due to its intense nature I placed the map by you and Aurelius in slot 19 - I think the intensity makes it a great “pre-final battle” but I’m by no means married to its placement, so I’ll make the swap if you prefer. (Also, After the “epic” MIDIs of the surrounding maps, having that happy little not-at-all-epic Mario ragtime tune also seemed hilarious in slot 19.. to be honest, that alongside the initial wave of arch-viles was what lead me to placing it there)

 

@Scypek2, based on what you’re saying, I think there may be a small error in the latest version of the map - the monster cubes spawn from atop the first of the four pillars you have to lower to get inside the IoS - they don’t appear to be coming from anywhere near his body. I thought it wasn’t like that in earlier versions.. this just confirms it. If you test the latest build, you’ll see what I mean (well, at least in GZDoom.. I haven’t tested it in DosBox since the initial version)

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Something that happened between resource packs 'k' and 'm' I believe: the texture called 'CRATINY' was changed to be 128 pixels tall now, instead of the 16 it was. Basically, it used to be the same height as 'VGCRATE1' and now has gotten to be a different one. That doesn't impact most maps but if you have used it as a middef to make sweet modern chandeliers that are suspended from the ceiling, your map looks like this now:
different_texture_height.png

 

I've fixed it by simply making all the textures 'VGCRATE1'. I wonder if this might have happened to other textures as well? And whether it affects other maps as well? Gonna make a few fly-throughs of my map to see if any other middefs look freaky now.

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Some potential bugs:

- I may be misremebering, but it seems that the game sometimes tries to switch from an emty shotgun to an empty flamethrower.

- On version 2m the Vile Island both archviles at the start do not see the player. On both versions 2k and 2n, one of the two archviles gives chase right away. Is the roll back of that archvile intended, or there is some mix up due to the flamethrower-cell cannon switch?

 

20 hours ago, Doomkid said:

Due to its intense nature I placed the map by you and Aurelius in slot 19 - I think the intensity makes it a great “pre-final battle” but I’m by no means married to its placement, so I’ll make the swap if you prefer. (Also, After the “epic” MIDIs of the surrounding maps, having that happy little not-at-all-epic Mario ragtime tune also seemed hilarious in slot 19.. to be honest, that alongside the initial wave of arch-viles was what lead me to placing it there)

IMHO, "Poster Boy of Mayhem" should not be an penultimate map, because it makes a perfect "midterm exam" for the second half of the WAD. Its encounters are less focused on "craziness" and depend more on precision and understanding of the weapons. It would be nice to have a bunch of "crazy" maps after "Poster Boy of Mayhem". This way the player would have more opportunities to use the skills they honed on that compact, yet deadly map.

 

BTW, that initial wave of archviles looks rather tame compared to the Cell Cannon fight on Sluggard map, or multiple Archvile/cyberdemon pincers on "Beautiful Clean Coal", or the cyberdemon pyramid of "Terraced Estate of Terror". And during the main challenging factor of this fight is limted ammo. With 150 bullets for blaster + 60 shells for combat shotgun that fight would be rather trivial, despite all the archviles and sniping revenant.


Feedback about map12 - "Beautiful Clean Coal" by Doomkid

Case 1 - UV pistol start:

My dreams have come true! Finally I have found a map that really feels like the original Go2it from Plutonia! (No, Go4it does not feel right, sadly...)

Of course, the "feel" of a Doom map is very subjective, but even many objective design elements are present. Both maps involve a combination of infight-friendly fights and deadly Plutonian ambushes, both maps can be played in many different ways and they both give a lot of firepower to the player. Even the designated infighting yard is present! "Beautiful Clean Coal" plays smoothly, and provides substational challenge. The ambushes are evil, but overcoming them is a big part of the fun. The UV version of the map feels complete. 

Case 2 - HMP pistol start:

The monster count feels too low, especially given the additional ammo provided. Compared to the UV version, the map feels noticeably different and rather dull.

IMHO, HMP on "Beautiful Clean Coal" should be balanced like the HMP on "Vile Island": by removing mostly the key, especially obnoxious monsters, and providing strong defensive options. I understand that a complete rebalancing of the map is hard to do, so I tried to come up with some quick-but-robust plan for such HMP rebalancing. It should get the work done, while being easy to implement. The plan is inside the spoiler. (I want to apologize for another oversized wall of suggestions. It feels wrong for me to suggest such a big overhaul of an already completed map. But it also feels wrong that on HMP the map has much less exiting gameplay compared to UV.)

Spoiler

The changes below should preserve HMP level of difficulty, while adding a lot of cool momemts from UV:

- Almost all monsters that appear on UV at the main courtyard or the cave area should appear on HMP. Exceptions: UV-exlusive archviles, one of the two cybers near red door and the second spider mastermind.

- To compensate for the tough initial fight: megasphere replaces the HMP blur sphere in the courtyard.

- To compensate for the cyber in the cave area: additional invulnerability is placed on the linedef that triggers the cyber to rise.

- Green armor is added to HMP BFG room.

- In place of the UV cyber inside the western castle, the spider mastermind appears on HMP.

- In place of the UV BFG, additional supercharge appears on HMP.

- All the non-boss UV monsters inside the western castle are also present on HMP.

- The archvile from second teleporter closet on UV is also present on HMP.

Overall impression:

One of my favourite maps in the WAD. It has an interesting interconnected layout, and allows for many different playstyles. And the theme of this map is amazing:  ecological disaster at tropical paradise + demonic invasion is very fitting and novel idea for a Doom map.

Edited by Azure_Horror : spelling

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So long, sky wall!

 

Screenshot_Doom_20210924_175146.png.85f4f7b5b105cb59e91ea72de1c93495.png

 

I also updated the Spiderdemon Surprise, tweaked the final battle, and added a couple of decorative graphics to the previously somewhat bland basketball room - a TV screen with foreshadowing, and a mural composed with Scuba Steve's Urban Brawl sprites. The texture lump included with my wad may be outdated, so maybe just copy the patches and add them to your own lump to be sure.

 

mohawk2b_scy_0924.zip

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