Monroe's Killer - [limit-removing Doom map] [NOW ON IDGAMES!]

[TheGreenZap]

This is a Doom 1 map using only standard textures. I was thinking old school when I created this, so I hope you enjoy it and get that vibe.

 

IDGAMES Download link: https://www.doomworld.com/idgames/levels/doom/Ports/m-o/monkill

 

Playtesters:

I want to thank @Omniarch for helping with suggestions to improve this map.

 

The rockin' midi is by @Mr. Freeze from the Plutonia MIDI Pack Project, called Untitled.

Name: Monroe's Killer
Map Format: limit-removed Doom
Ports Tested: Doom Retro, Crispy Doom, GZDoom
IWAD: Monroes Killer.wad - Doom.wad
Map(s): E1M1
Music:  "Untitled" midi by @Mr. Freeze
Gameplay: Single player
Build Time: 4 weeks
Textures: standard Doom textures
Requirements: No jumping or crouching. Freelook allowed.
Difficulty Settings: Yes. UV and HNTR are implemented. Just play on UV, HMP is there but it doesn't make much difference and I didn't want it to ruin the experience. If you want to take it easy, just use HNTR.

Story:
Dr. Monroe was once a highly regarded professor, but rumor has it he started delving into the dark arts and experimenting with demons. He hasn't been seen in some time and his last known location was his high-tech although aging laboratory. UAC is in need of his services and is sending in you...marine. Find Dr. Monroe.

I would love to hear your feedback.

 

Map:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1o0CQy8WIR9V1VfeKD6mQgqyZTrdFJxOl/view?usp=sharing

 

Screenshots:

 

Edited September 9, 2021 by TheGreenZap

[Biodegradable]

 

[TheGreenZap]

1 hour ago, Biodegradable said:

 

Bio, I think you are getting too good. You knew the tricks that were coming and you have been through Bourgeois like me, haha.

Loved your playthrough, I hope you enjoyed it.

 

When I get home I’ll remove the extra cells in the last room, I agree it is too heavy.

 

 

[Degree23]

Thanks for PMing me about your new map!

 

This was really quite fun to play through. I agree with Bio about the Cells in the final room, and I would even replace the BFG with the PG. The BFG makes the final fight almost trivial. If you remove the extra Cells in the final room, you're still giving 440 ammo (4x100 plus the weapon) plus a SoulSphere in the room just beforehand. I tested the final room with 440 ammo and I was able to PG everything, making use of almost no infighting, and still have 39 ammo left over. In reality, some infighting would occur, and you're also likely to have RL ammo left over from the previous room which I would use on the Barons first, so I'd almost be tempted to remove one of Cell packs and just have three of them, on UV anyway. The only other thing I noticed was the small gap in front of the red door looked kind of awkward. I wasn't sure there was much of a need for that height difference, especially one that small?

 

Otherwise, really great job on this!

[TheGreenZap]

1 hour ago, Degree23 said:

Thanks for PMing me about your new map!

 

This was really quite fun to play through. I agree with Bio about the Cells in the final room, and I would even replace the BFG with the PG. The BFG makes the final fight almost trivial. If you remove the extra Cells in the final room, you're still giving 440 ammo (4x100 plus the weapon) plus a SoulSphere in the room just beforehand. I tested the final room with 440 ammo and I was able to PG everything, making use of almost no infighting, and still have 39 ammo left over. In reality, some infighting would occur, and you're also likely to have RL ammo left over from the previous room which I would use on the Barons first, so I'd almost be tempted to remove one of Cell packs and just have three of them, on UV anyway. The only other thing I noticed was the small gap in front of the red door looked kind of awkward. I wasn't sure there was much of a need for that height difference, especially one that small?

 

Otherwise, really great job on this!

 

Thanks for playing, I really appreciate it and I'm glad you liked it. Yeah, that gap was weird, but I fixed it.

I have removed the extra cells in the final room that Bio was talking about, so hopefully that will help balance that room a bit more.

 

[Doomkid]

This is a really fun, convincingly classic-style map. I recorded some demos yesterday - or so I thought - but I either entered the command wrong or.. something else. I’ll happily play it again and record again, this is a high quality wad!

[TheGreenZap]

Thank you DK, I’m glad you liked it!

 

[Clippy]

Great map I had a lot of fun and I'll be looking for more of yours - more people need to map for Doom 1. 

 

 

 

[TheGreenZap]

1 hour ago, Clippy said:

Great map I had a lot of fun and I'll be looking for more of yours - more people need to map for Doom 1. 

 

 

 

Thank you for playing this Clippy. I’m glad you like the Doom 1 stuff. I agree, we need more Doom 1 maps! 

[Guilhem Saint-Gaudin]

Cool map :)

kinda romero-ish

But i didn't liked the shotgunners in windows in the dark that you couldn't see

But good overall

[Clippy]

1 hour ago, Guilhem Saint-Gaudin said:

Cool map :)

kinda romero-ish

But i didn't liked the shotgunners in windows in the dark that you couldn't see

But good overall

 

Yah those guys were jerks eh - who camps in a dark ledge to shoot at ppl, I'm gunna talk to their parents

[TheGreenZap]

7 hours ago, Guilhem Saint-Gaudin said:

Cool map :)

kinda romero-ish

But i didn't liked the shotgunners in windows in the dark that you couldn't see

But good overall

Thank you, I appreciate you playing my map.

 

[LordEntr0py]

Came back from a brief Doom hiatus to play this, and thoroughly enjoyed myself despite managing to self-kill on the first attempt.
 

 

[TheGreenZap]

Thanks @LordEntr0py, loved the video! I'm glad you enjoyed it!

I made a couple of tweaks to some textures that you pointed out.

 

I also tested the map in Chocolate Doom recently and it works well. Just to let people know.

 

And here is a top view of the map:

Edited August 25, 2021 by TheGreenZap

[Nikku4211]

Just played on Crispy with mouselook enabled. It was really cool, if a bit short. I played this in Hey, Not Too Rough, so there may have been an actual boss at the end in Ultra-Violence.

 

I found there wasn't much that mouselook offered for this map over autoaim, though. I get that it's not required, just not sure why it is 'encouraged' instead of just 'allowed'.

 

That's nothing though. This map is solid for what it is. I liked the secrets, too. I found the one where you shoot the eye circle pretty clever. I couldn't say the same for the one where you just press use on a computer wall, though. I liked the berserk pack that it had, though, and the little pinky encounter there.

 

It was kind of tedious at the beginning having to take the Cacodemon down with only a shotgun, and no chaingun. Glad I eventually got the chaingun and rocket launcher later in the level.

 

So, who did kill Monroe? Was it the Barons? Or the Cacos? No way it's the zombies or the imps, right?

[TheGreenZap]

26 minutes ago, Nikku4211 said:

Just played on Crispy with mouselook enabled. It was really cool, if a bit short. I played this in Hey, Not Too Rough, so there may have been an actual boss at the end in Ultra-Violence.

 

I found there wasn't much that mouselook offered for this map over autoaim, though. I get that it's not required, just not sure why it is 'encouraged' instead of just 'allowed'.

 

That's nothing though. This map is solid for what it is. I liked the secrets, too. I found the one where you shoot the eye circle pretty clever. I couldn't say the same for the one where you just press use on a computer wall, though. I liked the berserk pack that it had, though, and the little pinky encounter there.

 

It was kind of tedious at the beginning having to take the Cacodemon down with only a shotgun, and no chaingun. Glad I eventually got the chaingun and rocket launcher later in the level.

 

So, who did kill Monroe? Was it the Barons? Or the Cacos? No way it's the zombies or the imps, right?

 

Thank you for playing my map and I really appreciate the comments!

You are absolutely right about mouse look, I changed the original post to just read "allowed".

See spoiler below to see who actually killed Monroe.

 

Spoiler

I'm glad you asked! You didn't see him since you played on HNTR, but a Cyberdemon killed Monroe. That's him hanging on the wall at the end of the last level. If you played on HMP or UV you would have seen the Cyberdemon. I figured if someone wanted to take it easy playing this they wouldn't really want to fight a Cyberdemon.

 

Edited August 25, 2021 by TheGreenZap

[galileo31dos01]

Hello. I played your map in crispy just a minute ago.

 

Imo the only critiques I have are, on one side, regarding the cell count for the final room: 460 is overkill for a cyb and a few scattered barons, a lot that can go unused unless I suppose you could run past some of the ambushes in previous rooms and then go back to mop up, but the linearity of the last stretch may not entice players to think of such plan, on a first time. I would suggest keeping the BFG and maybe two cell packs at most, if not just one should be enough (on UV), because you do give a decent amount of rockets periodically that helps with the roaming barons. 

 

The belated blue armor seemed also kind of OP, by that point there were maybe two or three shotgunners afterwards, while most that came earlier - in teleporting ambushes, those perched ones in dark alcoves - were much more dangerous without any armor. The following traps give more than enough room to work, so it could be a green armor and it'd still be generous (in a fair way), or maybe the armor would be more useful if it appeared earlier idk...

 

Neither of these points are any big of a deal if it's what you intended things to go, so take them as you want. I liked the traps and how every corner is danger if you're not paying attention, and visually it has some nice color variation going on. With the secret chaingun in hand early on, I see potential for something fast and bloody. Good stuff!

[TheGreenZap]

1 hour ago, galileo31dos01 said:

Hello. I played your map in crispy just a minute ago.

 

Imo the only critiques I have are, on one side, regarding the cell count for the final room: 460 is overkill for a cyb and a few scattered barons, a lot that can go unused unless I suppose you could run past some of the ambushes in previous rooms and then go back to mop up, but the linearity of the last stretch may not entice players to think of such plan, on a first time. I would suggest keeping the BFG and maybe two cell packs at most, if not just one should be enough (on UV), because you do give a decent amount of rockets periodically that helps with the roaming barons. 

 

The belated blue armor seemed also kind of OP, by that point there were maybe two or three shotgunners afterwards, while most that came earlier - in teleporting ambushes, those perched ones in dark alcoves - were much more dangerous without any armor. The following traps give more than enough room to work, so it could be a green armor and it'd still be generous (in a fair way), or maybe the armor would be more useful if it appeared earlier idk...

 

Neither of these points are any big of a deal if it's what you intended things to go, so take them as you want. I liked the traps and how every corner is danger if you're not paying attention, and visually it has some nice color variation going on. With the secret chaingun in hand early on, I see potential for something fast and bloody. Good stuff!

Thanks for playing, I’m glad you liked it!

I’ll take a look at the cell count again on UV and see about cutting it down some. I agree on changing the armor as well on UV.

UV needs to be a little more challenging. 

 

Thank you for the comments!

[TheGreenZap]

Ok, I just did some adjustments in UV. Cut down the cell count to 260.

I also removed the armor all together in UV.

The new wad is uploaded.

 

Thanks to everyone for making suggestions to make this map better. I think this will help me in future Cyberdemon setups as well.

[baja blast rd.]

Chipping in with an FDA. I recorded this a couple hours ago so I missed the very recent update, but it might still be helpful for the stuff you haven't changed. 

 

 

The big imp fight was my favorite in the map. I also liked the layout's pathing, the way I could the two early barons and have them show up in an entirely different area with me later.

 

And yeah I agree that the end room could use a bit more of a climax. Part of it is that I perceived the cyb alone as a different fight than the rest of the stuff in the room, since it's sneakily behind that pillar, so it feels kind of like a "one-cyb fight" even if the room has more going on in it. 

There's a pretty good sense of build-up through the rest of it though. 

[TheGreenZap]

21 minutes ago, rd. said:

Chipping in with an FDA. I recorded this a couple hours ago so I missed the very recent update, but it might still be helpful for the stuff you haven't changed. 

 

 

The big imp fight was my favorite in the map. I also liked the layout's pathing, the way I could the two early barons and have them show up in an entirely different area with me later.

 

And yeah I agree that the end room could use a bit more of a climax. Part of it is that I perceived the cyb alone as a different fight than the rest of the stuff in the room, since it's sneakily behind that pillar, so it feels kind of like a "one-cyb fight" even if the room has more going on in it. 

There's a pretty good sense of build-up through the rest of it though. 

 

Wow, I like your play style rd! You were flying around attacking like crazy...it was fun to watch.

Yes, those Barons were following you around everywhere. I tried to make the map as connected as possible. I was thinking DM style when I created it.

I'm glad you enjoyed the Imp fight!

 

That makes sense about what you are saying about perceiving the Cyber as a fight alone separate from the other monsters. I initially had 2 Cybers in the final room, but changed it to other monsters and 1 Cyber.

 

Thanks for the great video and the comments, I really appreciate you playing my map!

 

[Pixel Fiend]

 

Actaully a pretty cool Doom 1 map. As always played in Woof. Took me 10 minutes to finish, and even defeated the boss. It has very decent design and fun fights. The part where the red key lowers and lots of monsters start teleporting in is particularly exciting. But there's actually a few such tense moments. At the beginning you can progress in a few ways. I found a secret weapon, Sigil-style. All around cool stuff, you can always add more cool stuff but I was taken by surprise at how much I liked it already.

[TheGreenZap]

Monroe's Killer is now available on IDGAMES!

I've updated the original post with the link.

 

Thanks to all that have played this!