[release] "The Mean Green 2" - 3 maps for Doom II

[Chris Hansen]

The Mean Green 2

3 levels for DOOM II - Boom comp.

 

 

The first 3 maps saw you fighting against Imps, Sergeants and Demons with only the Shotgun, Chaingun and the Rocket Launcher. This time we're gonna crank it up to 11 and you're gonna get bigger guns. But also a whole lot of beefier meat to aim them at! You are the Mean Green and you are about to bully the crap out of this strange world!

 

The levels are medium sized and sets the player in an abstract semi realistic hellish tech setting. I don't know how else to describe it.

 

They are made for DOOM 2 and Boom with an MBF sky transfer. I think it's -cl 9. Lot's of voodoo dolls outside the map make sure that you never quite know what will happen once you press a switch or jump of a platform. The levels have been tested with PrBoom+, DSDA-Doom, GzDoom, zDoom and Eternity. Not playable in vanilla.

 

The maps run on MAP04, MAP05 and MAP06.

 

Gameplay is rough and challenging on Ultra Violence and you better be quick on the keys and mouse. Keyboarders beware! ;)

 

I hope you enjoy them! As always, any commentary, bug reports and/or feedback is more than welcome.

 

>> DOWNLOAD THE MEAN GREEN 2 <<

 

 

EDIT 09/09: Now online at my website and /idgames

Edited September 9, 2021 by Chris Hansen

[Endless]

Hell yeah. I'll make sure to play this fully!

[Biodegradable]

The pools of blood featured in the maps were made out of my own during the playtesting phase. Enjoy, folks!

[Valboom]

Yeah! New maps from Chris Hansen,Thanks!

[Kor]

I guess I downloaded the first one a couple years ago, but I download so many levels I forgot about it.  Which is odd, I just started replaying the first one and it's pretty good (though the new color palette makes things a bit to dark IMO).  I'll play through both of them together. 

[Chris Hansen]

43 minutes ago, Kor said:

I guess I downloaded the first one a couple years ago, but I download so many levels I forgot about it.  Which is odd, I just started replaying the first one and it's pretty good (though the new color palette makes things a bit to dark IMO).  I'll play through both of them together. 

Yeah the palette is an aquired taste, I guess. I for one love how it darkens things and make the colours pop. Just like in the good old days of CRTs. Modern screens are just too bright. But maybe I am just too lazy or stupid to configure them properly ;) Anyway I hope you enjoy the levels!

[Kor]

27 minutes ago, Chris Hansen said:

Yeah the palette is an aquired taste, I guess. I for one love how it darkens things and make the colours pop. Just like in the good old days of CRTs. Modern screens are just too bright. But maybe I am just too lazy or stupid to configure them properly ;) Anyway I hope you enjoy the levels!

I remember playing Doom on old CRTs, sometimes I would turn the brightness settings down pretty far just to get that look.  But I think I've just gotten used to how modern screens are.

[Nikku4211]

I just played it on HNTR in Pooch. It was cool. It was pretty hard, though, and I had to quicksave a lot. The music was pretty awesome, too.

 

8 hours ago, Chris Hansen said:

Yeah the palette is an aquired taste, I guess. I for one love how it darkens things and make the colours pop. Just like in the good old days of CRTs. Modern screens are just too bright. But maybe I am just too lazy or stupid to configure them properly ;) Anyway I hope you enjoy the levels!

Eh, I thought the palette was pretty meh. It seemed a bit desaturated and reddish.

 

I agree, though, modern screens are too bright and have way too light black levels compared to CRTs. The only exception to that is OLED, but CRTs are great.

7 hours ago, Kor said:

I remember playing Doom on old CRTs, sometimes I would turn the brightness settings down pretty far just to get that look.  But I think I've just gotten used to how modern screens are.

 

I haven't gotten the chance to play Doom on a CRT monitor, the last CRT monitor I used was when I was around 6 in 2009 going on Windows XP and watching YouTube videos of some guy stealing another guy's bike.

 

While I did recently buy a CRT a few months ago and regularly use it for my consoles, it's an SDTV that doesn't support VGA, and certainly doesn't support 70hz video modes like what Doom and most other DOS games require, nor does it support 480p (p as in progressive, not interlaced, which is 480i) like what Windows 3 and up require, despite having component ports.

[Astro X]

 

[Chris Hansen]

Thank you for the video, @Astro X!

 

Spoiler

The secret you missed is in the starting room

 

[Biodegradable]

Thought I'd better revisit the maps after the changes Mr Hansen had made. ;^)

 

 

[Astro X]

It is official, @Biodegradable will never play a map from me and tell me his thoughts idk why >_>

[Steve D]

On 9/4/2021 at 1:23 AM, Chris Hansen said:

The Mean Green 2

 

Keyboarders beware! ;)

 

Are you calling me out?

 

As soon as I can get my nose out of RoC2 and job hunting, we'll see how "beware" I need to be!!!!! ;)

[Chris Hansen]

27 minutes ago, Steve D said:

 

Are you calling me out?

 

As soon as I can get my nose out of RoC2 and job hunting, we'll see how "beware" I need to be!!!!! ;)

Hmmm, maaaaayybeeeeee! Hehe!

[grothendieck1453]

It took me quite a few attempts, but I finally managed to beat map04 without saves on UV. It was a very fun challenge, and I love your mapping style!

 

Thanks for making these maps!

[Pirx]

On 9/4/2021 at 11:19 AM, Biodegradable said:

The pools of blood featured in the maps were made out of my own during the playtesting phase. Enjoy, folks!

 

So, eco-friendly, biodegradable pools. 

[TheGreenZap]

How in the world did I miss this release!

I’ll be checking this out. Good to see you release a new wad Chris!

 

[galileo31dos01]

Very pleased to see more Hansen stuff in the public, and this melancholic palette. Like the former minisode this was pretty entertaining, fitting for a short-term coffee break maybe (if you're your own boss, since these do have some meanness going on).

 

I decided halfway through to record FDAs, mostly because before doing so I was experiencing weird blockmap mockery in some hallways, but this isn't showcased in any of the demos. The first map is simply an exit with foreknowledge, nothing premeditated, the second is legitimately blind after the trap with a spectre/archvile, and the third is completely blind - with one death I hope prboom didn't overwrite. A few notes that can be seen in the demos:

 

- in m04, the mancubi that spawn in the dark room with SSG are rendered harmless, because at that point you're already heading out of there; speaking of the next part, while the torches in the corners aren't all that problematic, I'd suggest to be careful with decorations placed like those, because they can be potentially obtrusive when dodging 

 

- the trap before using the platforms is only relatively engaging if you know of the secret radsuit ahead of time, which I didn't the first time and had to camp the monsters in the tunnel, which wasn't very interesting. A tip I'd give is to have a few safe plates so players can hop over the blood without the need of the secret to fight up close. 

 

- the zombiemen in the blood canals sometimes blocked me from below when I wanted to jump to the secret blue armor, so they could be relocated somewhere else.

 

- in m06, of the ledge monsters in the final area, the lone arachnotron seemed to have very limited line of sight, and I didn't notice where it was until the rest of the room was cleaned. 

 

- generally teleportations could work slightly faster than they do atm: the bit with torches I mentioned above for example, the gunners spawned two at a time, and several seconds later the couple HKs; in the final ambush, one of the chaingunners ate a rocket that was directed to a caco because he delayed his arrival (was actually amusing ngl). Looking at the setups in an editor, I think they'd benefit from additional teleport lines, so that when a monster stops blocking a destination, any other monsters arrive immediately. This is up to you though, as I could get all kills in the three maps without hassle. 

 

^{- please reduce lost soul hp if the count is that high, they're so obnoxiously spongy for no good reason}

 

I hope I covered everything that I wanted to, but if anything there's the demos... But yeah, good stuff as always!

 

meangre2_demosbygal.zip

[baja blast rd.]

Fun mapset. One of the things I liked most was how it could shift instantly from player oppression -- tactical snipers, tricky terrain, limited resources -- to player empowerment, like handing you a fully stocked plasma rifle, and then without missing a beat shift right back to oppression again, like throwing out an especially devious archvile fight. Even when you're stocked up, you can't feel safe. While that is not inherently "better" than the alternative, it also means that these three mid-sized maps end up drawing out tension for a longer period than three equivalently long maps normally would. 

 

And even though enjoying Big Weapons was advertised, there are also moments to pistol barrels into imps and stuff like that. The murky palette made everything harder to see, especially with the low average light level, which ends up being a type of "tricky terrain" all in itself, which is unusual but I thought it worked well. But darkness isn't leaned on exclusively either; plenty of action is set under the bright red sky.

 

Architecturally, construction is clever. Areas are in that tradition of being composed largely of many solid chunks of a given material, with those chunks often overlapping or wrapping around each other, like this metal beam intersecting the window and coming down on the other side, and this WOODMET ceiling layer that can be viewed from profile in different ways from different parts of the room. 

 

 

 

That is not just for pure looks either; the functional layout is intricate, and efficiently connected, because such intersecting "chunks" make up its planes and platforms. Navigating those planes -- doing stuff like crate-climbing, or navigating around to teased upper portions -- gave these maps a good exploratory feel even though, looking at the editor, their overall sizes are surprisingly small. 

 

  

 

Nitpicks and technical notes that Galileo already covered aside, the one stretch I thought was a major downer was the ending of map06, when you finally get the BFG. The encounters are very noticeably restrained in their density -- compared to even setups in the wad designed to let you unleash the plasma rifle or even SSG. More detailed explanation: 

 

Spoiler

The first one almost reads as anti-BFG: scattered revenants you initially can't kill more than two or three of at a time, chaingunners that can backstab you during reloads, spectres that can block you from getting good positions, and lost souls that can eat tracers. Considering all that, my strategy was to ignore the BFG initially and rely on the chaingun, using only one BFG shot after everything bunched up in the center. 

 

In the second one, I can actually see "pushing the cyberdemon off the bridge" as the lighter part, and there is one row of ledge monsters that can be caught with a single BFG shot --- but it's also a way more dangerous fight, so it feels like another gauntlet. 

 

Based on my impression of the set to that point, I was expecting one to be the "empowering fight" and one to be the "oppressive fight," but it's really two of the latter, and two relatively prickly ones at that. 

 

[Astronomical]

I'm downloading it now but Ill play it tomorrow.  Only issue is the lack of green in the screenshots. 

[galileo31dos01]

46 minutes ago, Plank_Guy_89 said:

Only issue is the lack of green in the screenshots.

 

There's actually some green in every picture, though if the concern comes from the title, you'll have to play the wad to understand ;)

[Chris Hansen]

Thank you to the comments above! Lots of useful and valuable feedback!

[Clippy]

@Biodegradable pointed me in the direction of these maps and I feel compelled to try them however I must know

 

Are they meant exclusively for continuous or should I try pistol starts? 

[EffinghamHuffnagel]

On 9/8/2021 at 9:36 PM, Plank_Guy_89 said:

 Only issue is the lack of green in the screenshots. 

 

I had the same question about the name. When I got to an exit, I actually expected that the FLOOR1_7, REDWALL and TLITE6_5 would be green versions along with a green exit sign.

 

I combined both wads in Slade and found it to be an enjoyable continuous episode. A couple of minor notes. Using last dev of ZDoom (I try to use ZDoom whenever possible. GZDoom and pr-boom give me eyestrain/headaches. Not sure why.)

 

Spoiler

MAP02 (mean green 1) - You can use the tag 5 switch from the water below. It's within 64 units of the edge. Not sure if that breaks anything or not.

 

MAP05 - You can use the tag 15 teleport landing spot as a step to SR to the Berserk before raising the tag 34 bridge. Early advantage; but nothing broken. Not sure if that was an intentional option.

 

Lots of fun. I always enjoy your maps.

Edited September 11, 2021 by EffinghamHuffnagel : MAP06 ZDoom exit works fine. My stupidity.

[Chris Hansen]

3 hours ago, Clippy said:

@Biodegradable pointed me in the direction of these maps and I feel compelled to try them however I must know

 

Are they meant exclusively for continuous or should I try pistol starts? 

Thank you for the interest! Continuous and pistol start have both been tested and they work fine both ways. It's a given of course that pistol starting is substantial more difficult, but it can be done. You will get all the weapons you need relatively fast to deal with all the meat that's in the way ;)

 

58 minutes ago, EffinghamHuffnagel said:

 

I had the same question about the name. When I got to an exit, I actually expected that the FLOOR1_7, REDWALL and TLITE6_5 would be green versions along with a green exit sign.

 

I combined both wads in Slade and found it to be an enjoyable continuous episode. A couple of minor notes. Using last dev of ZDoom (I try to use ZDoom whenever possible. GZDoom and pr-boom give me eyestrain/headaches. Not sure why.)

 

Lots of fun. I always enjoy your maps.

Thank you! Glad you're enjoying it and thank you also for the tips/feedback. It sounds like it's minor things so I won't fix them unless something really bad shows up. But I will definitely keep it in mind!

 

The Mean Green is called... well, just take a look in txt file or at the protagonist's armour ;) I'm surprised so many people haven't realised this yet! :D

[Pirx]

23 minutes ago, Chris Hansen said:

 

 

The Mean Green is called... well, just take a look in txt file or at the protagonist's armour ;) I'm surprised so many people haven't realised this yet! :D

 

LOL 😁

[Clippy]

I made it to map 4! Good times for sure - I really dig your mapping style - the use of secrets - and the whole look and feel - I'll see if I can make it through the others as well

 

 

[Chris Hansen]

Thanks for the video, @Clippy. Again, it was a pleasure to watch you play. Great reflexes and you really approach the level in a way I appreciate greatly since it's very much just like the way I intended.

 

1 hour ago, Clippy said:

"OMG! I'm worse than a stormtrooper in Star Wars right now!"

That made me laugh, thanks!

 

1 hour ago, Clippy said:

So after 6 maps, are you going for the full 32?

There's nothing I'd love more than to make my very own full megawad, but I'm no @pcorf, so that'll mostly likely never happen. That would also mean releasing 10 Mean Greens and I'm not sure the concept of these levels can be stretched that far. But my very own megawad is at the top of my wish list and something I'd like to do before I retire.

[Pirx]

16 hours ago, Chris Hansen said:

 

There's nothing I'd love more than to make my very own full megawad, but I'm no @pcorf, so that'll mostly likely never happen. That would also mean releasing 10 Mean Greens and I'm not sure the concept of these levels can be stretched that far. But my very own megawad is at the top of my wish list and something I'd like to do before I retire.

 

i hope very much to see a megawad from you! even if it's a smaller megawad, 15 maps are enough by definition. 

[Biodegradable]

Yeah, don't be too discouraged, Chris. Maybe you could make a miniWAD of 6-8 maps or something. I believe in you!