[TIME IS UP!] Literalism - A Boom-compatible CP where we do things by the map title

[NeedHealth]

21 minutes ago, TheNoob_Gamer said:

Very interesting tidbit of info!

Actually, I have improved on this system a bit. I'm also planning to introduce a way to compensate for the player making the monster veer more to one direction by having it teleport to different closets around the map. This and the pacifist check.

 

I don't know why I am doing all this work because I wouldn't use randomness in a "proper" doom map haha. It is not fair to speedrunners.

[Worriedidiot]

Here's MAP02. You could move it up a slot or two if it's possibly too difficult.

 

Map Name: "Cosmic Cacodemons"

Author: Worriedidiot

Play Time: ~7 minutes

Music: Star Man's theme from Mega Man 5

Textures: Mechadon's Box 'o Skies

Difficulty Settings: Yes

Coop: Yes

Deathmatch: No

Description: A pretty short, but hectic map set on a space rock, with dangerous "space juices"... Oh, and lots of cacodemons of course.

Cosmic Cacodemons.rar

[MFG38]

@Worriedidiot Feedback for your map:

• Nice visuals with great use of vanilla textures, and the custom sky complements the map's overall color scheme really well.
• Layout leaves a little to be desired (mainly thinking of the corridor-like nature of the "key" paths) but is generally not bad.
• Gameplay on UV was pretty fun, if a little on the easy side. Not a big problem for what's intended to be such an early map in the set, though. The couple teleportation tricks that you used were a cool touch.
• SUGGESTION: If you wanted to make the map slightly harder, one way I think you could achieve that is by adding in a few Revenants. Perhaps one or two on the blue key platform alongside the Chaingunner, so as to pressure the player a tiny bit and keep them from rushing over there. It's ultimately your choice if you want to do it, but I do think there's a little bit of room for upping the challenge, even for so early a map.
• No bugs or other major issues caught.

[Worriedidiot]

@MFG38 Thank you for your feedback!

To be honest I was kinda scared that my map was too difficult for the MAP02 slot, but it seems like that isn't the case, so I probably will take your suggestion and put some revenants in the blue key room. I agree that the layout was kinda "Meh...", but I don't think it's a complete "deal-breaker" considering how short the map is.

[Pistoolkip]

2 hours ago, Worriedidiot said:

Here's MAP02. You could move it up a slot or two if it's possibly too difficult.

 

Map Name: "Cosmic Cacodemons"

Author: Worriedidiot

Play Time: ~7 minutes

Music: Star Man's theme from Mega Man 5

Textures: Mechadon's Box 'o Skies

Difficulty Settings: Yes

Coop: Yes

Deathmatch: No

Description: A pretty short, but hectic map set on a space rock, with dangerous "space juices"... Oh, and lots of cacodemons of course.

Cosmic Cacodemons.rar

 

 

Fun little map, if a bit short. Not too difficult, and two decent secrets to find. Difficulty is fine for a level 2 MAP. Obviously you need plenty of Cacodemons. 

Overall, you implemented the title well, with plenty of tricks and surprises and a good balance of weapons, health and ammo.

 

Suggestions:
I don't like the (excessive) use of the Ash textures. But maybe that's cause it was the default texture for Doombuilder way back in the day, so I have an allergy to it. The water textures, sky textures, rock etc were good though, if a little undetailed.

 

I didn't really liked the ending and felt that the map was a little short. A bunch of caco's behind the exit door was anti-climatic. Would be great if the final room was a lot larger, with Caco's from different sides and even coming over the walls.

 

The blue key-area was my favourite, causeit  really makes use of the Caco's unique feature now: it flies. So more open spaces or pits where the Caco's have the upper hand, please! Also gives you more opportunity to show off that spooky space sky!

 

 

[PinkFlamingo]

My progress on 'Cathedral of Rhyza'...

 

I more or less finished the cathedral layout, which will be the central area of the map. I am planning to add more structures and areas around it. The vanilla textures in the screenshots are placeholders. I will replace them with custom textures once I made up my mind on which ones to use.
 

Spoiler

 

 

[Pistoolkip]

17 minutes ago, PinkFlamingo said:

My progress on 'Cathedral of Rhyza'...

 

I more or less finished the cathedral layout, which will be the central area of the map. I am planning to add more structures and areas around it. The vanilla textures in the screenshots are placeholders. I will replace them with custom textures once I made up my mind on which ones to use.
 

  Hide contents

 

 

 

 

 

looks good! Hope it plays as well as it does. I find church benches generally don't play well, unfortunately.

Not to brag, but check out MAP04 of this WAD for an interesting take on a hell cathedral with plenty of action, all vanilla textures:
 

 

[NeedHealth]

 

Still very much a work in progress both of these.

[Worriedidiot]

This is an update to "Cosmic Cacodemons"

I added 2 revenants to the blue key room for extra "spookiness" and some shells to deal with them.

Cosmic Cacodemons_V2.rar

[Pechudin]

Some screenies, some playtesting and fine tuning left.

 

[Walter confetti]

A second release of the completed map is here ready for testing! Tell me if you found any bugs or something that needs a change or something like that. Have fun!

 

https://www.mediafire.com/file/mhk3w8y6pic1wjp/jungle_of_albus_v1.zip/file

 

Title: Jungle of Albus
Author: Walter
Build time: 7 days
Estimated playtime: 10 minutes
Music: Rich ¥Weeds¥ Nagel - DETH Bells
New Graphics: An edited version of CC4-TEX by me, included in the zip file
Difficulty Settings: Yes
Coop: Yes
Deathmatch: Player starts only
Editors used: DoomBuilder X 2019.1, Slumped, Slade
Tested with: Prboom+ 2.1.5.7um

 

Description: I don't know what Albus means at first, with the only expection of the charatcher Albus Silente from Harry Potter. That i'm not a big fan, i just know there's gandalf clone, magic asuka soryu langley, harry potter and other shit. So i made this plutonia-like jungle map (pretty inspired by Congo and Aztec) with pictures of Albus Silente i found on the net. The result is been pretty omnious for such a silly concept.

 

Also pray and praise your Gods that this map isn't just been filled with pictures of Albus Silente with a green filter applied on it since this was my original concept for this map!

Edited August 1, 2021 by Walter confetti

[MFG38]

@Walter confetti Feedback for your map:

• Great visuals overall. Texture usage was pretty solid, as was the lighting work.
• Nice non-linear layout with lots of interconnectivity going on, all the while managing to keep from becoming overbearing. I found my way around the map with relative ease.
• Gameplay is fun for the most part, pretty much the only exception being the starting area with the golden monolith in the middle. I feel there are one too many hitscanners there.
• SUGGESTION: This shootable "switch" to raise the path to the exit needs to be made more obvious (see spoiler below).
• No bugs caught.

Spoiler

 

[Pechudin]

Ok, time for me to post my offering, so here goes. The WAD should be loaded with d1gfxd2.wad (DooM1 resources).

 

WAD:

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/s/akbaistaj8tlx1c/burning_dungeon.zip?dl=0

 

Texture pack:

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/s/qxfz0gr3c94l078/d1gfxd2.wad?dl=0

 

Title: Burning Dungeon

Author: Pechudin

Build time: 5 days (est. 20 hours)

Playtime: 10-15 minutes

Music: Monster Girl Quest - Manotairiku

Difficulty settings: Not yet

Editors used: GZDooM Builder Bugfix, Slade, WhackEd4

Tested with: PrBooM+, GLBooM+, GZDooM

 

    "Burning dungeon", what a vague name ... probably describes dozens of Hell-themed maps. I went for a brick and fire theme, with lots of lava. A prison as well. The map is fairly linear, but central area is backtracked through with some fodder to keep the backtracking fun. The combat is teleport-trap heavy and foreknowledge helps a lot. Some traps may kill you if you have the wrong weapon, and space is at a premium. One trap in particular is dickish, but you are prepared adequately. Looking forward for feedback!

[TheNoob_Gamer]

5 hours ago, Pechudin said:

Burning Dungeon

LITERALISM: YES! It's a dungeon alright. And it violates fire safety regulations by being extremely hot to traverse through, making the chances of fatalities very high for workers.

ACTUAL REVIEW: 

This dungeon is huge. Everything is very interconnected, and it looks like Hell surely has some sort of architectural standards - polished materials, clean work sections, nice details to stuff, clever lighting and appropriately sadistic torture chambers. No escape attempts can't bypass the watchful eye of ...whatever overseeing this dungeon, as evidenced by a certain broken ladder.

...Until they made a mistake by leaving a weak wall unfixed, causing our imprisoned protagonist to wreck havoc. The extremely intense music endlessly looping doesn't help either, motivating inmates to get out of there as soon as possible. It's a shame everyone just ends up beating the shit of each other out though.

 

The security is very tight, though fortunately the guards' weirdly balanced hunting groups and ammo scattering around places can't hold a candle to our badass character. Even their most serious attempts ambushing you in the conveyor belt area (which appears to be some sort of torturing system) is not as tricky as you'd have thought. 

However, the final ambush at the armory (simple, yet effective and clean place) is rather lame. Everyone just attacks from the outside, none thought of the possibility of backstabbing. The plethora of rockets and cells stored make killing those guards as easy as a pie - perhaps some supporting revenants/archviles can spawn in midway into the fight?

 

Fun dungeon, would get my ass burned by scorching flames again. 8/10.

 

[TheNoob_Gamer]

12 hours ago, Worriedidiot said:

Cosmic Cacodemons

LITERALISM: YES! Intergalactic huge meatballs!!! A lot of them!!!

ACTUAL REVIEW: A space map! I like how unreal everything looks, the texture work is clean. Gameplay is short, straight and there certainly are a lot of Cacodemons hanging around. The toxic blue liquid seems fitting for the map's looks.

One suggestion for revenants: Reposition them near the entrance to blue key area. As it is, escaping from them is a bit too easy.

 

11 hours ago, Walter confetti said:

Jungle of Albus

LITERALISM: YES? At least there is a lot of green.

ACTUAL REVIEW: I like the premise of the map and texture work (the LOTR/Harry Potter images make this map bizarrely cool). However, Doom being Doom, creating an actual, living forest is a pretty hard task - the whole adventure feels more like cavern exploration (which is still cool, not gonna lie, it makes exploration much more intriguing.)

The gameplay is pretty good, supported by the map's non-linearity. Some notable setpieces I like include the zombies at the beginning (with the yellow slate thing giving the impression that cultist activity is taking place), the archvile battle near the old blue door (nice detail btw), which is kind of hard but fair (some additional shells could have helped though, then again I didn't look for the secret BFG hard enough).

Detailing/lighting is also top-notch. I especially like the caged hanging corpse in the image below, and the aforementioned yellow slate thing.

 

I agree with MFG regarding the switch raising the platform. Perhaps flickering lights signaling progression/the switch itself?

It also seems like there is a HOM bug in the blue room, before you press the switch. Is this by any chance intentional?

The second half of my gameplay got corrupted and has abysmal framerate, I don't feel like recording again, but I still want to add some footages, so here goes. The second corrupted half will be edited here soon for the sake of completion. Apologies if this bothers you.

 

[Pechudin]

5 hours ago, TheNoob_Gamer said:

LITERALISM: YES! It's a dungeon alright. And it violates fire safety regulations by being extremely hot to traverse through, making the chances of fatalities very high for workers.

ACTUAL REVIEW: 

This dungeon is huge. Everything is very interconnected, and it looks like Hell surely has some sort of architectural standards - polished materials, clean work sections, nice details to stuff, clever lighting and appropriately sadistic torture chambers. No escape attempts can't bypass the watchful eye of ...whatever overseeing this dungeon, as evidenced by a certain broken ladder.

...Until they made a mistake by leaving a weak wall unfixed, causing our imprisoned protagonist to wreck havoc. The extremely intense music endlessly looping doesn't help either, motivating inmates to get out of there as soon as possible. It's a shame everyone just ends up beating the shit of each other out though.

 

The security is very tight, though fortunately the guards' weirdly balanced hunting groups and ammo scattering around places can't hold a candle to our badass character. Even their most serious attempts ambushing you in the conveyor belt area (which appears to be some sort of torturing system) is not as tricky as you'd have thought. 

However, the final ambush at the armory (simple, yet effective and clean place) is rather lame. Everyone just attacks from the outside, none thought of the possibility of backstabbing. The plethora of rockets and cells stored make killing those guards as easy as a pie - perhaps some supporting revenants/archviles can spawn in midway into the fight?

 

For the "weirdly balanced hunting groups", I like enemies infighting since that is their nature, chaotic evil and stuff. The final battle I'll admit is a bit easy. Perhaps I could open up alternative routes for the enemies so they spill in from the sides as well, or the back. Perhaps teleport some less threatening meatwall enemies from the back so you need to watch two entrances.

 

Seems like the conveyor belt area worked as I imagined it, which is good since that is my favourite bit. I was experimenting with texture combinations there and will probably use that scheme in my maps in the future.

[TheNoob_Gamer]

Just now, Pechudin said:

For the "weirdly balanced hunting groups", I like enemies infighting since that is their nature, chaotic evil and stuff.

That was a compliment lol, meant to keep in theme of environmental storytelling stuff going on in the map and the overall review.

Regarding the armory, imo the teleporting mobs should not be bloated, or else the battle might turn out rather frustrating to beat.

[Pechudin]

3 minutes ago, TheNoob_Gamer said:

That was a compliment lol, meant to keep in theme of environmental storytelling stuff going on in the map and the overall review.

Regarding the armory, imo the teleporting mobs should not be bloated, or else the battle might turn out rather frustrating to beat.

 

Yeah, it the final battle can be tricky if the enemies get inside, and if Archviles refuse to die. As for what should spawn in the back, maybe Imps, just something to take your attention away from the door and let the enemies get a foot inside the armory.

[MFG38]

@Pechudin Feedback for your map:

• Absolutely loved the visuals. You really managed to make the map look the best it could with (almost) strictly vanilla textures. Your use of lighting and detail work also deserve a mention.
• Layout is overall decent. There is room for improvement - it does somewhat lean towards the "room/door/room/corridor/room" style - but the overall non-linearity and occasional "overlap" shows promise.
• Great gameplay with a good amount of challenge. Every combat scenario had its own brand of fun to it, especially the conveyor belt room. That was perhaps my personal favorite room combat-wise, if only because you rarely see conveyor belts used in combat areas.
• SUGGESTION: The items on the top shelves in the armory should be lowered a tiny bit. In GZDoom, at their current height, they're unreachable without jumping if infinitely tall actors are off. Or, alternatively, you should be able to force the relevant compat flag on for the map in (Z)MAPINFO.
• SUGGESTION: The music tracks needs to be replaced with a MIDI, as per this post.
• No bugs caught.

[TheNoob_Gamer]

7 minutes ago, MFG38 said:

The music tracks needs to be replaced with a MIDI, as per this post.

Damn, turns out the music was an OGG file. I would miss it.

[Pechudin]

26 minutes ago, MFG38 said:

SUGGESTION: The music tracks needs to be replaced with a MIDI, as per this post.

 

Ah, didn't catch that. I'll find another track I guess. A shame since I really wanted to use that song. Oh well, guess I'll use it in my own project then.

Also, thanks for the reply. Glad you liked the visuals, seems like I am decent at that, but layout is still my weakest skill.

[TheNoob_Gamer]

Just now, Pechudin said:

layout is still my weakest skill.

Well, at least everything looks pretty good!

[Walter confetti]

Fixed the map minor bugs and added the missing difficulty settings, check the original post up there.

[Worriedidiot]

Another update to MAP02 "Cosmic Cacodemons"

• Made one of the secrets more accessible
• Added a bit more stuff to a different secret
• Moved the spooky boners in the blue key room

Cosmic Cacodemons_V3.rar

[SCF]

All right, I made a lot of progress over the weekend and managed to stop myself from adding more sections to the map. This version has no difficulty settings yet, but I figured it would be good to get some feedback first. Tested in PrBoom+ and GZDoom, so nothing should break (hopefully). The map is in slot 29

 

Edit: Version 2 now has difficulty settings.

 

Download (v3)

Map name: The Basement Problem
Author: SCF
Play time: 10-15 minutes
Music: "Kar2explor.mid" from Terra Nova: Strike Force Centauri (taken from Mechadon's Counterattack)
Textures: Vanilla
Difficulty settings: yes
Coop: no
Deathmatch: no

Description: The UAC sent you to retrieve a key card from an abandoned house. 
The first inspector they sent never came back. What infernal secrets lurk in the basement?

Edited August 11, 2021 by SCF

[SCF]

Started playing the other maps that have been posted so far. I haven't read anyone else's comments (or watched videos) so I might repeat things that have already been said.

 

4 hours ago, Worriedidiot said:

Another update to MAP02 "Cosmic Cacodemons"

• Made one of the secrets more accessible
• Added a bit more stuff to a different secret
• Moved the spooky boners in the blue key room

Cosmic Cacodemons_V3.rar

 

Pretty fun map, and clearly fits the name. No major complaints, just a handful of things I noticed:

 

- The floor that drops at the start is really disorienting. At first I thought it was a silent teleporter that was pointing the wrong way, since I suddenly found myself staring at a wall. I assume the reason it doesn't drop more slowly is so you can't just cross the gap if you have enough speed. Maybe making the gap bigger would work, and leaving a small ledge on the side so you can still get the secret.

- I liked the yellow key fight. Not too difficult if you know what's coming, but the first time I really had to scramble to find a way out.

- The revenant guarding the blue key is bit annoying since you have to snipe him with the shotgun. One option would be switching the yellow/blue keys and then putting a chaingun (or chaingunner) behind the blue key door. Then you have te choice of getting the chaingun first.

- The blue armor secret is really awkward. I had to try getting it multiple times and I would either fall into the 20% damage void, or immediately hit the teleporter without grabbing the armor. I think that one could stand to be more forgiving.

- The cacodemons after you get the blue key are trivial to deal with, since you have plenty of time to just run back. Then it's kind of tedious having to wait for them to fly over so you can kill them. If the intention was to make you fight them on the island, then it needs some way of trapping you there.

- The area after the blue door is pretty anemic. Based on your update comment I'm guessing you changed that area in this version, but now it's just three shotgunners behind the first door, and a single chaingunner behind the next.

- Nice automap art

 

 

[SCF]

On 7/31/2021 at 11:50 PM, Pechudin said:

Title: Burning Dungeon

Author: Pechudin

Build time: 5 days (est. 20 hours)

Playtime: 10-15 minutes

Music: Monster Girl Quest - Manotairiku

Difficulty settings: Not yet

Editors used: GZDooM Builder Bugfix, Slade, WhackEd4

Tested with: PrBooM+, GLBooM+, GZDooM

 

That was a cool map, I liked it a lot! Nice environments, really brought the place to life. The room with the conveyor belts was probably the best in terms of combat.

 

I see MFG38 already brought up the issue with the top shelves on GZDoom. However, I have infinitely tall actors turned on and I still couldn't pick them up. Not sure why. I have compatibility set to Boom (strict) if it makes any difference.

[Worriedidiot]

@SCF Thank you for your feedback!

 

8 hours ago, SCF said:

- The blue armor secret is really awkward. I had to try getting it multiple times and I would either fall into the 20% damage void, or immediately hit the teleporter without grabbing the armor. I think that one could stand to be more forgiving.

The problem with that secret was that, if I made it bigger, you could be able to sr50 jump to it from one of the platforms.

 

8 hours ago, SCF said:

- The area after the blue door is pretty anemic. Based on your update comment I'm guessing you changed that area in this version, but now it's just three shotgunners behind the first door, and a single chaingunner behind the next.

I actually changed the room with the blue key, not the blue door, but I do understand what you're talking about.

 

Other than that, I don't really have much to say, so I'll start implementing your requested changes.

[Wavy]

I'll revoke my spot. Apologies. I was waiting to contribute to Doom 2 from Memory but wanted to do this while I wait but it seems it's already started.

 

Either way, good luck everyone!

[Worriedidiot]

An update to MAP02 "Cosmic Cacodemons"... again (Sorry for the constant updates)

• The floor doesn't lower instantly anymore
• The blue key fight is now revamped
• The blue armor secret is now a lot easier to get to
• The rooms after the blue and yellow key doors are now a lot more challenging

This will probably be the last update I do to this map.

Cosmic Cacodemons_V4.rar