Light Pollution, a map for the Eternity Engine - UPDATE

[NokturnuS]

This is a map I plan to include in my Eternity Engine map pack, Somber Density, but decide to release as a single map for people to test. One big map with lots of enemies, but most of them are low health ones. Is very difficult on UV however, so maybe you will try HMP first.

Runs with the last official version of the Eternity Engine (https://www.doomworld.com/forum/topic/119425-eternity-engine-40200-forseti/) or you can download developer builds from https://devbuilds.drdteam.org/eternity/

 

Map: Map 01

Difficult Settings: Yes

New Monsters: Yes

New Sound and Music: Yes

New weapons: No

Runs with: Eternity Engine only

Map format: UDMF

 

*** UPDATE  30-09-2021 ***

Upload a little update with some changes:

- Mark the green key ubication more visible, with some orange stripes around it.

- Added some gore to Xdeath frames

- Made the Behemoth (Mancubus type demon) little more dangerous, adding more range.

- Some alignments and retexturing

- Added one more map, a more polished version of map 01 of Somber Density.

 

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Download Map https://drive.google.com/file/d/1JX5Kt-JSZ_bVWt0ZKs8iUP7mRIyzwp_5/view?usp=sharing

 

(Download Map: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1JX5Kt-JSZ_bVWt0ZKs8iUP7mRIyzwp_5/view?usp=sharing)

 

Hope you enjoy it !

 

Screenshots :

Spoiler

Spoiler

 

Edited October 1, 2021 by NokturnuS

[Firedust]

Are you the same guy who made can't run from evil? That was a legendary wad.

 

Lovely screenshots and looking forward to playing your mappack :3

[DaxxAlabel]

This looks amazing. Looking forward to playing this one through

 

[RonnieJamesDiner]

Everything looks great, but damn that skyline looks ridiculously cool. This looks like a ton of fun!

[Biodegradable]

Oh man, those textures look so damn snazzy!

[Wavy]

Nice to see Eternity Engine getting some love!

[Loud Silence]

Hell yeah! I haven't played Doom for few months and i hear it now calling me back. I loved screenshots and i'm sure i'll love the map itself too.

[TheNoob_Gamer]

Interesting. Judging from what I've seen in screenshots and the OP, the full set will feature custom enemies?

Edited July 19, 2021 by TheNoob_Gamer

[Murdoch]

1234 monsters? Welp. Screens look very interesting. Will definitely download.

[galileo31dos01]

Hello. I just finnished the map on HMP in an hour and a half, 99% kills and 40% secrets was as much as I scored and I called it a day there, since the automap wasn't the most helpful even with cheats on -- surprisingly found every item though, and even more shockingly no massive framedrops for once.

 

I had a good time overall. The colorful visuals and high attention to detail were nice though I have to admit it took some time to adjust, specially once inside the complex there's a LOT to pay attention in order to not get lost. The hitscan hell nature on the other side was insane, but alright in general, at least while knowing where armor was. I died two times at the start to those pesky gunners on higher bridges and stuff and then the third time I just played more carefully and never died again, not without a few close calls here and there, all due to the amount of hitscan inside. In terms of narrative/theme I guess that those many zombies rack up the body count, considering it's an infested techbase, it makes sense. 

 

The addition of custom items and enemies was nice. I liked the orange meatball the most - speedy, dies to 2-3 shotgun shots, good at ambushing from above/below. The new mancubus was a pacifist and rarely did something, not sure if intentional or just weird rng (I suppose they're more prominent on UV, and thus actually dangerous in higher numbers). The grenade guy and shadow imp, cool ideas yet slightly underwhelming - at one point I ate a point blank grenade and it did very little damage, which surprised me, and the "tier A" homing red projectile from the imp had an interesting mechanic going on, so they could hurt a little more imo, to really consider them threatening. There was also the new hitscan dude, which was the most real asshole of them all, so he was fine. Lastly, I noticed that some monsters took at least the double (or triple?) of ammo to kill, this one shotgunner for example tanked a lot of chaingun bullets before he died, which threw me off as I didn't quite get the purpose.

 

As far as bugs and stuff, only this misaligned texture here in this secret room, and another on the other end too. Also the green keycard wasn't displayed in the status bar. Unfortunately I don't know where those 1% missing monsters were, as again I couldn't read Eternity's automap.

[NokturnuS]

2 minutes ago, galileo31dos01 said:

Hello. I just finnished the map on HMP in an hour and a half, 99% kills and 40% secrets was as much as I scored and I called it a day there, since the automap wasn't the most helpful even with cheats on -- surprisingly found every item though, and even more shockingly no massive framedrops for once.

 

I had a good time overall. The colorful visuals and high attention to detail were nice though I have to admit it took some time to adjust, specially once inside the complex there's a LOT to pay attention in order to not get lost. The hitscan hell nature on the other side was insane, but alright in general, at least while knowing where armor was. I died two times at the start to those pesky gunners on higher bridges and stuff and then the third time I just played more carefully and never died again, not without a few close calls here and there, all due to the amount of hitscan inside. In terms of narrative/theme I guess that those many zombies rack up the body count, considering it's an infested techbase, it makes sense. 

 

The addition of custom items and enemies was nice. I liked the orange meatball the most - speedy, dies to 2-3 shotgun shots, good at ambushing from above/below. The new mancubus was a pacifist and rarely did something, not sure if intentional or just weird rng (I suppose they're more prominent on UV, and thus actually dangerous in higher numbers). The grenade guy and shadow imp, cool ideas yet slightly underwhelming - at one point I ate a point blank grenade and it did very little damage, which surprised me, and the "tier A" homing red projectile from the imp had an interesting mechanic going on, so they could hurt a little more imo, to really consider them threatening. There was also the new hitscan dude, which was the most real asshole of them all, so he was fine. Lastly, I noticed that some monsters took at least the double (or triple?) of ammo to kill, this one shotgunner for example tanked a lot of chaingun bullets before he died, which threw me off as I didn't quite get the purpose.

 

As far as bugs and stuff, only this misaligned texture here in this secret room, and another on the other end too. Also the green keycard wasn't displayed in the status bar. Unfortunately I don't know where those 1% missing monsters were, as again I couldn't read Eternity's automap.

 

Hi, thanks for play the map, good comments there. Some answers to the topics mentioned:

- New Mancubus (from hell forged) made intentionally weaker and slow, so if you keep at distance they are practically harmless. They're pretty lethal in close range tho,cause each flame adds damage to the player. Purpose of them are really to kill some low health baddies via infight, at least in UV because in some spots you may run out of ammo.

- Grenades I think are interesting on portal heavy maps, because it can be thrown through holes, but need to make more experimentation. The grenade have 2 damages, if you close enough it hits like regular projectile and if it's on the ground and explode it have another damage. I think they're dangerous enough, maybe you wear the orange armor that absorbs a lot of damage, sadly there is no indicator on EE that you wear that kind of armor (or at least I don't find how to use it).

- I add some more hit points on some monsters on key spots, to add some variety, some Behemoth (the name of the mancubus guy according to HellForged) at the end of the level have 1000 hit points instead of 400, but this is on UV. I think some people don't like the idea, we are killing zombies with a shotgun hit for 25 years, it becoming almost a reflex to fire and forget.

- For now, there is no way to show custom items (keys, ammo, artifacts) on the status bar on EE, but this gonna change I think in future releases. Maybe i'm gonna udpate the map replacing the green key with a red key (some people think it's difficult to spot it in the nukage area).

 

Again, thanks for playing and for all your feedback.

 

 

[TheDuckXD]

When i loaded in i was completely speechless. It is just so amazing looking that i just wanted to keep playing and see what everything else looked like. And i'm happy i did, the more i played the better it got. And the gameplay made it even better! When i played it i had a crazy amount of fun, an amount of fun i rarely have playing wads. I most definitely am putting this in my top 3 best wads. Another thing is that the music choice is also outstanding! It fits the level perfectly and is one of the best i've heard. Great work! I can't wait for the full release of Somber Density!

[Shepardus]

I very much enjoyed Somber Density (well, what I've played of it so far, I have yet to finish it), so it's great to see a new map from you! More and more reasons to check out Eternity Engine these days...

[Edward850]

 

[Gwarl]

Here's a demo of my first two attempts on HMP. I want to give this another try and find the rocket launcher. Seems easier than the somber density map01 I played last, which is not to say that it's at all easy mind you..

 

Some framerate drops in the big outside areas.

light.zip

[Murdoch]

About 300 corpses in on HMP. Thoughts.

 

- I am definitely taking some time to adjust to fully 3D maps in Doom. A lot of the old dodging and AI manipulation techniques that have become part of my play style really don't work any more.

- The complexity of the architecture makes my brain hurt, especially knowing how these things are constructed. Good job.

- Love the sky box.

- Very challenging. Got to be mindful of those hit scanners in wide open areas like this map. Got to play a bit more cautiously.

- Great textures.

- That new cacodemon variant with the Hellraiser 3 chatterbox Xenobite mouth is very unnerving in spite of being weak. It's speed combined with that wide open mouth is disconcerting.

- Not quite sure deploying the new Mancubus out in the open works. I get the logic, but it is not immediately clear when playing it for the first time. Personally, I think a single encounter outside to let the player realise how dangerous he is up close, then deploy him again in tighter quarters later. Would make for a good "OH SHIT!" moment.

- Only just enough ammo to scrape by, most of it coming from corpses. Maybe just a shade more on the ground to allow for mistakes in key combat areas?

 

On the whole, very cool. Nice work.

[Veinen]

Holy smokes, I didn't even know you had new material in the works! Well consider me super hyped, Can't Run From Evil is a personal favorite of mine.

 

Anyway, played this teaser map on UV and it's really freaking good! Pretty much CRFE with 3D floors and new enemies. It was indeed quite a tough one, a 1,5-hour war of attrition like no other. Only small fry enemies but there are so many and they are quite literally everywhere, and with ammo and health so tightly balanced I felt like I was hanging for dear life for most of the map. I think the new enemies work well for the most part and fit the general style of combat in this map very well. I agree that the Manc was perhaps a bit underwhelming since they didn't really pose much of a threat at any point. They might be lethal in close quarters but they didn't really have a chance to shine here imo, with so much open space and on the other hand corners to hide behind when they were deployed in smaller areas. Orange baby Caco is very mobile and thus works well in this 3D environment, the shadow Imp has a positively annoying projectile, the Grenadier guy is very effective in close range (and very good at infighting!) and the SS guy in disguise is a good addition to the hitscanner army in the map. The new enemies' low damage attack's fit the vibe of the map and I don't think they need to be any deadlier, especially with the current health balance on UV. Visually the map is, of course, fantastic and again reminiscent of your other works with the addition of all the 3D stuff. I definitely liked how the interior floors got darker toward the basement in both lighting and overall texture theme.

 

I found one potential softlock: from the exit platform you can parkour to the platform directly beneath it (there are four Chaingunners there) by using the ventilation shaft -like structures but said platform is a dead end and there's no way to jump back out.

 

There were also a couple of instances of enemies stuck on stairs but it must be an engine quirk or something since it was not a consistent issue at all.

 

 

[NokturnuS]

10 hours ago, Gwarl said:

Here's a demo of my first two attempts on HMP. I want to give this another try and find the rocket launcher. Seems easier than the somber density map01 I played last, which is not to say that it's at all easy mind you..

 

Some framerate drops in the big outside areas.

light.zip

 

Weird, player dies aprox. after 2 minutes, then nothing happens and after some minutes demo desync. Maybe you are running a devbuild version of EE ?

 

[TheNoob_Gamer]

13 hours ago, NokturnuS said:

Weird, player dies aprox. after 2 minutes, then nothing happens and after some minutes demo desync. Maybe you are running a devbuild version of EE ?

 

Could be because he attempts to save and then load. I personally found devbuilds a vastly superior choice to stable versions due to their stability (duh) and features.

 

 

Anyway, I too finished the map, on UV (with lots of savescumming lol) The map itself is very fantastic (and the MIDI too, very fitting for the theme!), but I have some general comments:

Spoiler

It seems playing on Eternity devbuilds produce visual errors. Only the shotguns have smoothed animations (with SSG being apparently unused), while everything else doesn't. This feels really inconsistent and a bit jarring to look at. Plus, the plasma rifle have graphical glitches on my version. If you wanted, I could send my copy for bug reproduction. Still, since this is mostly visual stuff, hence trivial, I decided to put it in spoiler.

 

Gameplay might feel weird on some parts - I accidentally messed with my recording hotkeys.

[Gwarl]

19 hours ago, NokturnuS said:

 

Weird, player dies aprox. after 2 minutes, then nothing happens and after some minutes demo desync. Maybe you are running a devbuild version of EE ?

 

right that might be it, I am using a devbuild. I am going on holidays soon but I want to revisit this (or somber denisty) when I come back in a couple of weeks and will be recording.

[SyntherAugustus]

This was really neat and I had a lot of fun. I guess my only criticism was that I made myself lost for a good 10 minutes trying to figure out where the green key was, only to find out that it revealed itself in a green beam of light that was the same color. Maybe contrast it somehow?

[NokturnuS]

On 7/20/2021 at 7:24 AM, TheNoob_Gamer said:

Could be because he attempts to save and then load. I personally found devbuilds a vastly superior choice to stable versions due to their stability (duh) and features.

 

 

Anyway, I too finished the map, on UV (with lots of savescumming lol) The map itself is very fantastic (and the MIDI too, very fitting for the theme!), but I have some general comments:

  Reveal hidden contents

It seems playing on Eternity devbuilds produce visual errors. Only the shotguns have smoothed animations (with SSG being apparently unused), while everything else doesn't. This feels really inconsistent and a bit jarring to look at. Plus, the plasma rifle have graphical glitches on my version. If you wanted, I could send my copy for bug reproduction. Still, since this is mostly visual stuff, hence trivial, I decided to put it in spoiler.

 

Gameplay might feel weird on some parts - I accidentally messed with my recording hotkeys.

 

Hey, thats a lot of saves, but a fun watch.

About the visual glitch on weapons, that's beacuse I use a heavy modified PLAYPAL, so all original doom assets are not reindex, except weapon sprites for shotgun, chaingun, RL and chainsaw. Map objects doesn't have this problem because I use a translation table. I will include in an update reindex for all weapons and smooth animations for them (currently there is only for shotguns).

 

[TheNoob_Gamer]

5 minutes ago, NokturnuS said:

thats a lot of saves

Should have played on HMP and turned off freelook, but I could not resist the urge of looking at the entirety of the map and getting my ass kicked :P Beautiful Eternity levels aren't something you see everyday.

Regarding your comment on the palette: I suppose it matters to gameplay even less (for instance, the plasma rifle is not available or at least not easy to find, so normal players are unlikely to encounter the plasma gun glitch) but an update addressing this graphical problem is very good to know.

[NokturnuS]

Hi guys, just upload an update of the map, and added one more map to test.

Hope you like it!

[i suck at nicknames]

This looks absolutely awesome, cant wait to check this out!