[PRBoom+] Moon series 2021 [Idgames available]

[Yugiboy85]

Hello to all, 

 

In celebration of the official announcement of the third installement in the series ("Man from the Moon"), I am proud to present my 2021 versions of both "Travelling to the moon" (2016) and "Man on the Moon" (2018). These are currently in RC2 phase and, I want to thank all my testers who were kind enough to replay these (and discover them for some). Specifically, thank you to John Suitepee and Jimmy. Your feedback was gladly appreciated and helped a lot. 

 

I would also like to thank bridgeburner who played the original ones not very long ago on stream. He kind of instigated (unknowingly) all this, well, at least, he reinforced my idea of updating them. 

 

Anyhow, let's go into this Map by map. 

 

TRAVELLING TO THE MOON:

 

 

PLAY INFORMATION

 

IWAD: Doom 2

Slot: Map 01

Skill settings: Yes

Engine needed: Prboom+ at the very least

Complevel: CL9

 

MISC: This is the first map in the series, as such, it should be played first. But, it's all up to you ^^

 

DESCRIPTION

 

This map was previously released in 2016. Since then, I've learned quite a lot of stuff and as such, I decided to mainly update this one visually. I was pretty satisfied with the gameplay it had but, even then, I also tweaked that a bit. 

 

So yeah, I mainly got rid of what I thought to be either quite silly (a water generating rock near the red key building for example) or a bit rough in the texture transition departement. I redesigned a few switches for example as, a lot of them looked a bit too simple to my liking (nowadays), made the rocks in the yellow key arena a bit more natural looking, added a few light spots (candles or otherwise) in very dark areas to make stuff stand out a bit more and other small stuff here and there. 

 

On the gameplay side of things, while the core map didn't change that much, I did change a few things here and there. For example, I lowered the time of some of the voodoo dolls to make some of the fights flow a bit better, I added a plasma gun in every key section (available after 1 wave of each fight), I added one new secret (not very hard to find if you take a look at your surroundings for a bit haha) and other small changes here and there (a bit more health arround the map in the form of medkits, same for ammo, etc...). 

 

Hopefully, you will appreciate the changes I've made to this map. I personally think it flows better but, that's mainly me haha

Oh yeah, I got rid of the zdoom specific music (a dan terminus track). Not because I didn't like it but, because I wanted to stay coherent with "man on the moon" which only has one midi track. Sorry for those who liked the track haha

 

NOW, On to the next map. 

 

MAN ON THE MOON: 

 

 

PLAY INFORMATION

 

IWAD: Doom 2

Slot: Map 01

Skill settings: Yes

Engine needed: Prboom+ at the very least

Complevel (if using prboom+): CL11 (The map works perfectly fine in CL9 but, due to the dehacked boss having MBF specific code pointers, I had to change it to 11).

 

MISC: This is the direct sequel to TTTM. 

 

DESCRIPTTION

 

This is the map that got the most changes gameplay wise. Mainly on the progression side which felt, I'll admit it, quite obscure at points. Here is a list of the major changes: 

 

- The Exit is now more visible. You can see it in one of the starting rooms (the big courtyard outside with the RL in the middle). 

 

- The green key is now completely optionnal but, it gives you access to a nice surprise. As a result of this, you only need 3 keys to exit. 

 

- You no longer need to press a collored special switch to lower bars in the exit room. Previously, in addition to needing a key, you had to press a switch to lower bars in the exit room. Problem, that exit was not very visible so, you didn't really know what you were doing. Those switches are still in but, they serve a different purpose (lowering the set of bars arround the green key). 

 

- I removed the BFG secret which was a bit stupid and obscure. As such, the BFG is now part of the green key section. 

 

- I reworked some of the secrets a bit (like the megasphere secret in the blue key area, I lowered the platform a bit so that it is easier to jump on). 

 

- I got rid of the lock in that happens before the final fight. You can now backtrack if you forgot stuff like the BFG for example. However, once you press the switch to trigger the final fight, that's tough luck haha. 

 

- Regarding the final fight, the terminator health has been lowered a bit and, there are a bit less archviles (for example, there is now only one vile after you kill the terminator). Also, there is only one terminator now instead of 2 (there are 2 on coop though). 

 

So yeah, overall progression is much better now I think and is a welcomed addition in a map like this ^^

 

On the visual side of things, the major change is the updated starting point. The map now has the rocket you left travelling to the moon with. 

I also got rid of some fake floors which I felt weren't to my liking anymore and also, I made the lifts more obvious along with other small updates here and there but, not really worth mentioning :)

 

So yeah, enough rambling, here is the link: 

 

RC1: https://www.dropbox.com/s/yihx3h5awvddpt6/MOON21_RC1.zip?dl=1

 

RC2: https://www.dropbox.com/s/9xyfksd7hcyjers/MOON21_RC2.zip?dl=1

 

RC3: https://www.dropbox.com/s/ycr2r50h1rgqwhz/MOON21_RC3.zip?dl=1

 

Temporary idgames links:

 

TTTM: https://www.doomworld.com/idgames/levels/doom2/Ports/s-u/travmoon

MOTM: https://www.doomworld.com/idgames/levels/doom2/Ports/m-o/motm

 

You will find everything you need to play these inside (not the iwads of course). There are even command lines for prboom+ (in txt format, you will have to change them to bat) if interested. You will also find an info.txt and credits too. 

 

Regarding the previous releases (on idgames), do not threat, those will stay on as legacy versions. 

 

Have fun. 

Edited June 13, 2021 by Yugiboy85 : idgames links

[MattFright]

Images on the main post seem to be broken...

[Yugiboy85]

Yeah, I don't know what happened. They appear fine on my computer but, on my phone, they come out broken. Will see what I can do

 

EDIT: Should be fine now. 

[Yugiboy85]

RC2 available. 

 

Concerning MOTM, nothing major has changed. Aside from some very small lifts that have been turned to small stairs and a few small visual tweaks here and there. 

 

Concerning TTTM: 

 

- A few visual adjustments (added a few light zones to the red key hangar fight, you can now see shit a bit better haha)

- Tweaked the yellow fight. It's less chaotic but, still hard. 

- Added more health to the final fight and changed the BFG position (there was no real point hiding it behind a fuck ton of revenants really) 

 

So yeah, I don't see what else I can add. So, unless something critical is discovered, this is pretty much close to final. 

 

Link: https://www.dropbox.com/s/9xyfksd7hcyjers/MOON21_RC2.zip?dl=1

 

 

[koren]

Hey I played through these this evening. I had some very vague memories of TTTM and a couple of the encounters but MOTM may well have been my first play-through of any version, far as I can remember.

 

Both were really fun adventures to blast through. I preferred man on the moon with it's slightly more aggressive encounter design - Lots of changes to the arenas and waves being introduced just a tad faster than I found comfortable, leading to some exciting moments of improvisation. Here's an FDA for RC2 of each map recorded with dsdadoom 0.18. I died a couple of times with trip to the moon, killed the demo, took a quick break and restarted each time, which strictly means my exit isn't an FDA, but y'know.

 

 

moonseries-rc2-fda-koren.zip

[Yugiboy85]

Awesome. Thanks koren, I'll watch these later today :D 

 

Glad you enjoyed these. 

[MattFright]

I've not been able to play much at all in the past few weeks (not even Doom) because i've been so busy with my own projects, but i'm very glad that this is one of the few i decided to play.

 

Not to put out a wall of text i'll try to be a bit brief with my thoughts on both maps:

 

Travelling to the Moon:

Spoiler

Visually, this one reminds me a lot of Lunatic which is a huge plus for me. I did enjoy my first attempt quite a bit, but after a few tries i noticed that it gets extremely repetitive for its size. Lots of "oh no, i'm locked in!" fights even when they're not needed, lots of archviles where they don't fit (and lack of archviles where they would fit).

 

The biggest problem was probably the pretty bad pacing when it comes to the fights themselves, where you wouldn't be given any hints as to where enemies would be coming from or what enemies they would be, so most often than not you'd be zapped by several archviles at once while getting shot by fodder enemies before you even get a chance to think about how to position yourself and how to assert target priority, ESPECIALLY in the fight with the spider mastermind and all of those archviles.

 

Another issue i had with this one is that the ammo balancing was barely a thing in it, and after getting the rocket launcher and/or plasma rifle i'd never have to use anything else because i never ran out of cells or rockets (which also meant i left probably over a hundred shells on the ground after finishing the map).

 

I still had fun, but i'm not sure i'd recommend this one to others. The other map on the other hand...

 

Man on the Moon:

Spoiler

I was cautiously analyzing this one a bit more than i usually do to see if it would have any of the same issues, but i was pleasantly surprised to have started having a lot more fun from the get-go, and despite being such a long map i still had that same amount of fun all the way through, and i also found this one soooo much prettier.

 

The highlight of this one was probably the better pacing of progression and the big fights. Aside from an ambush with a billion chaingunners pretty early on, i never really felt cheated on this one, i always felt like the fights were fair, interesting and varied (although some persistent tropes are very much still there, like the lack of incidental combat followed by several stronger enemies teleporting in from several locations).

 

Another thing to note is that i really liked how you went about doing secrets in this one. They felt pretty well telegraphed, decently well hidden (maybe some of the most rewarding ones could be a bit better hidden though?), and very rewarding. I just think they could be a bit more varied than "hidden shoot/press switch", then i'd have absolutely nothing but compliments about these. Also i couldn't find the green key wherever it was, which is probably a good thing because towards the end i started slacking off in regards to exploration.

 

I did however feel like the final fight could've used a bit more refinement, it was far more challenging at the start, then only got easier after the cyberdemons showed up (and even easier at the final boss phase), probably because the final boss and the supporting minions that came with him weren't all that threatening, and didn't make much use of the arena's geometry to make as interesting of an encounter as the first few waves.

 

With all of that said i had a looot of fun with this one, and if you've learned lots more things from this one (given it's still a couple years old) i can't wait for your next release :)

I'm also surprised people are sleeping on this release so hard, i hope that by bumping the thread again a few more people might give it the attention it deserves. :D

Edited May 11, 2021 by MattFright

[Yugiboy85]

16 hours ago, MattFright said:

several stronger enemies teleporting in from several locations

 

Erm, Man on the moon hardly uses teleport ambushes tbf. I'd understand if this was directed to the first one which does alot but, aside from the final (and one secret fight + the blue zone trap when you come back to the begining), teleport ambushes in man on the moon are like not that present. Most monsters are either in closets or placed directly in the fight zone. So, I'm pretty shocked that you would mention teleporting enemies here. 

 

Regarding your comments on the first one, yes, I understand most of them. But, when you say that there are no hints as to where the monsters teleport from, I'm not so sure what you are talking about. The red key hangar for example has literal teleport pads on the floor and a pretty big light spot where you can see them coming from. As for viles, well, that's understandable. I just like them is all so, I tend to use them quite a bit. This version has quite a a few that were either taken off completely or just moved to coop. But yes, overall, I agree on the repetitiveness of the fights in that one. That one originaly came out in 2016 and I was just getting used to monster ambushes and stuff so, I get that this is a sentiment that comes out. 

As for ammo balance, meh. I REALLY HATE ammo starvation in a map so, I just put a shit ton in it to make it less frustrating. I'm not that good of a player so, heh. It never really came out as a problem for most people who played this but, fair enough. I guess it is a thing. I'm not really gonna change that aspect though. Again, ammo starvation or else is a big NO NO for me. 

 

As for your comment on the final fight of the second installement, god damn it. This fight got the most tweaks, be it for this version or even before the idgames release. In very early stages, the plaforms wouldn't lower at all, it was all hapening on same grounds. For this version, I did take out some viles too so, it's less chaotic overall. I really DONT know how to refine that trap even more without denaturing it altogether. I think it came out pretty good after all the changes already and honestly, aside from some critical bug that is find, I will leave it as is. The final boss originaly came out as a pair but, after much thought, I decided to move the second one to coop due to him constantly infighting with his pair. As for monsters coming out, during the final boss phase, well, yes. I mean, leaving just this one dude in that big room would've been quite boring heh. 

 

I would hope that you enjoyed the second installement more though. That came out 2 years after (the original release) and I learned more. This version (2021) has had ALOT of changes from the original version. Getting lost is less of a problem and all. 

 

Anyhow, thank you for the feedback. A shame that you didn't really enjoy the first one but, that was to be expected really. 

 

Edited May 12, 2021 by Yugiboy85

[DavidN]

I tried the second one by request and it was absolutely spectacular :) A massive map that doesn't feel overwhelming thanks to good colour coding and signals of progression, and at my level of a comfortable challenge (on the easiest difficulty setting). I really enjoyed this one!

 

 

[Yugiboy85]

Glad you enjoyed it haha. Fyi, on UV, I think there's like 400 extra monsters. Some of the monsters you didn't find btw are probably part of a secret fight that allows access to an early plasma gun. But, that's fine haha. I really enjoyed watching this :D 

 

BTW, I really like that your hud shows you what kind of armor you are wearing. That's actually pretty useful and never noticed that before :D 

[Yugiboy85]

RC3 Available (this should be very close to final at this point): https://www.dropbox.com/s/ycr2r50h1rgqwhz/MOON21_RC3.zip?dl=1

 

Changes: 

 

TTTM:

 

- Visual tweaks. Mainly a new side building that you can visit after getting the red card. 

- Pushed some ammo (mainly big ammo) to multiplayer only. After watching koren's demo of TTTM, I did indeed notice that there was maybe a bit TOO much ammo, even for me :D 

- Raised the voodoo dool script time a bit in the yellow key fight and lowered it slightly in the final area (it was really long). 

 

That's about it. 

 

MOTM: 

 

- Added a bit of opposition after you grab the megasphere secret in the blue key area. Nothing much but heh, I always felt that it was a bit too free :D 

- Made some monsters spawn in on the path out of the green key building to indicate that you should head this way. 

- Made the yellow door into a switch door for coherence with the other keyed doors (none of which open by just having you press them so yeah)
- Slight visual tweaks (mainly texture and lighting changes) 

 

So yeah, this should be (as said above) as close to the idgames release as possible. I may change my plans regarding the idgames release of these btw. @rd. suggested to me that i could update the links of the older versions to these and, in the same zips, have a folder entitled "legacy" that would contain the original releases. I actually like that idea. Thanks RD :D 

 

Enjoy

Edited May 20, 2021 by Yugiboy85 : Forgot to add the link...what an idiot lol

[Moustachio]

Screenshots look awesome! I’ll come back with a thorough review once I get a chance to play this!

[Shulbocka]

I'm embarrassed to say that I never tried Traveling To The Moon, but I did play Man On The Moon and it was great. I'm definitely going to be playing both of these updated versions asap. Just out of curiosity, would you be willing to make Man On The Moon take up map slot 2 so that both maps could be played in conjunction since this is a series? Just a cool thought, but if not it's no biggie. Congrats on the release by the way, and thank you for them as well.

[Yugiboy85]

Hi shulbocka, that is fine, no worries haha. I think most people will be bound to play man on the moon more because it recieved an honorable mention but heh, that's to be expected :) 

 

Also, as per your suggestion. Funilly enough, I've thought about doing this before but, realised that it was way too much of a hastle (it's not as easy as just putting the map as map 02) for a few reasons: 

 

- Both maps are designed for pistol start obviously. Now, you could make the argument that I could put a death exit on map 01, why not, but that would kinda break the immersion (paradoxically). Plus, with the third one underway, I would ALSO have to put a death exit on map 02. 

 

- Both maps use a rather separate set of textures. Granted, it's not impossible to merge them together by deleting the double entries and all but, it's not really something I want to go through. That would mean making a list of every single texture used by both maps, find the comon ones, etc... Too much work for nothing imo. Not to mention, the third one uses the ancient aliens textures which comes up with a completely different palete which also means that I would have to convert every single texture+sprites etc... to that palete just so that I could fit it in map 03. 

 

So yeah, I did try to make some kind of master resource wad and all but, I gave up haha

Good suggestion though, but unfortunately, I'm gonna have to pass on that one :) 

[Veinen]

Just played through TTTM RC3. Seriously awesome space base adventure map with some fun & meaty encounters and gorgeous visuals. Love the AV placement in the big encounters, they really spice things up a lot and despite not being that hard to kill they are pretty scary in the relatively open arenas. Cacocloud in the RK wing was another highlight for me because I fucking love Cacoclouds. 

 

FDA in the attachment if you're interested, played with glboom+ cl9 on UV. The 2016 version file is in my doom folder so I'm sure I have played that version but honestly didn't remember anything else but the theme and general visual style. Managed to finish without dying in about 45 minutes, 100% kills and 9/10 secrets which I'm sure helped my efforts to survive. I think I had two spare Megaspheres and a couple of Soulspheres too in the end so I feel like I did quite well overall... other than a brief scare in the tight quarters encounter in the RK wing which honestly I had no business surviving with that kind of playing.

 

Will play MOTM later.

 

FDA_TTTM_RC3.zip

[Yugiboy85]

And thus, the final versions have just been sent to idgames. 

In the meantime, here are temporary links. Will update when the idgame links are available (if all goes well). 

 

EDIT: Idgames links available

 

TTTM: https://www.doomworld.com/idgames/levels/doom2/Ports/s-u/travmoon

 

MOTM: https://www.doomworld.com/idgames/levels/doom2/Ports/m-o/motm

 

 

Thank you to all those who were involved in playtesting these and for the videos etc... :D

 

Also included in these links are the legacy versions of each map if interested. 

 

Enjoy :D

Edited June 13, 2021 by Yugiboy85

[plums]

I recently did some navel-gazing and went to look for people that used my sky texture pack, and MOTM came up. Gave the 2021 version a whirl since I liked your recent Villa de la Muerte and thought it was really good! Excellent large-scale adventure. I loved that it was very heavy on rockets without being maximum swarms of enemies all the time, and the visual design was top notch.

 

I'll have to give TTTM a go soon. Did the 3rd part get finished? (I assume it would be in this thread if it had, but thought I should check.)

Edited September 9, 2023 by plums

[Yugiboy85]

Thank you for the kind words :)

 

I believe i am using one of your skies in this actually (assuming you are the same plums that did the skytravaganza pack?)? 

[plums]

I am! That purple planet that made a few people ooh and aah when I posted the pack here so I'm glad it saw some use. I think @Jimmy might have also used it at some point?

 

I have a similar sky that I haven't posted anywhere if you don't have a good one for your 3rd Moon map.

[Yugiboy85]

Oh nice, could you send it via pm so that i can take a look? I have one currently but, i would love to see how it looks still. 

[QuaketallicA]

Wow those screenshots look super cool. I'm salivating at them! I got to download this. Damn you Doomworld for making such cool wads. My Steam Library is gonna be lonely.

[QuaketallicA]

Is there any associated story/narrative for this map trilogy? I couldn't find any in the .txt files.

[Yugiboy85]

Not really. Usual: 

Doomguy has to go on a moon (motm) via a secret military base with a rocket ship (tttm) and, once on moon, he realises that the source is elsewhere, on the purple saturn planet (man from the moon, aka part 3 which is wip). 

 

[QuaketallicA]

1 hour ago, Yugiboy85 said:

Not really. Usual: 

Doomguy has to go on a moon (motm) via a secret military base with a rocket ship (tttm) and, once on moon, he realises that the source is elsewhere, on the purple saturn planet (man from the moon, aka part 3 which is wip). 

 

 

Okay I played through Map 01, Travel To The Moon.

 

Spoiler

 

My initial impressions was that this was Doom perfection. In every way aesthetically, it was 10/10. Architecture, lighting/shadows, great variety of colors and contrast of colors, lighting effects, indoors/outdoors, base/caverns, etc. 

 

However I later realized the progression of the map, for each color, was 1) go along path, 2) reach big arena, 3) defeat huge horde of monsters in big arena, 4) think you're done only to reveal wave 2 (or 3, or 4) of same arena, 5) teleport or backtrack to start, more incidental monsters along way, 6) Repeat for next color.

 

The incidental monsters and the level design on the way to and from the arenas I greatly enjoyed, as those were more classic Doom-style, but the actual big arenas, in Doom Eternal style, were rather inconsistent and irritating for me. The blue arena was by far the easiest, with so much rocket ammo everywhere I was already at max capacity of 100 and still there was a surplus lying around. There were 5 or 6 Soulspheres everywhere and I didn't even need them. The red arena was middle difficulty, with a smallish room and an Archvile finale that gave a good challenge. It was mildly irritating, but nothing I couldn't handle with a few saves/loads.

 

But then we reach the yellow arena, and that was just ridiculous. At that point, when I'm already rather tired from the big map, we devolve into slaughter map territory. This arena feels very much designed for use of a BFG, but I didn't see any anywhere. (Admittedly I finished the level with only 9% of Secrets, so perhaps it was in a secret?) Eventually I just got fed up of it and used cheats to give myself the BFG, because it was just impossible without it. Hell, it was impossible even with it. I landed up just turning on GOD mode too till the battle was over.

 

And then after that I thought I'd reached the exit, but nope, there's still a whole another Green area which was even worse than the yellow. You have this massive arena with no medkits, not a single medkit anywhere in sight, but then in one tiny corner on the far side of the map there's 20 of them. Just...why? Why does the easiest "arena" have surplus of armor, soulspheres, and rockets everywhere, but the two insanely hard ones don't? How come I don't get a BFG until the green fight, which even then is insufficient given how little ammo there is.

 

I don't know, maybe for slaughter fans this is par for the course and fun, but I've never been too fond of the teleporting monsters and arena style gameplay, when the hordes are in ridiculous numbers.

 

Anyway, I don't want to be too negative. I actually thought the map itself was totally gorgeous and very well designed otherwise, but those last two encounters I think really there should've been more health/armor or soulspheres placed at regular intervals around map for easy access, I should've gotten BFG by the yellow fight with ammo for it, or the enemy count should've been more reasonable and less nuts.wad. I think with a little bit of balancing for the last two big arenas, this could easily be an 8 or a 9/10 map, nigh Cacoward material. 

 

P.S. The midi is a good midi, but the map is quite long. Any 3-5 minute midi track will get annoying and old when it loops about 20-30 times for the duration of the big map. Not much that can be done about that though, unless your midi is a full length classical symphony. lol

 

 

[CortexReaver]

Traveling to the moon (first map) and man on the moon (second map), both completed on UV + fastmonsters:

 

 

 

Edited September 14, 2023 by CortexReaver