MEKANISM (NOW WITH 12 MAPS) |MASSIVE UPDATE: E2 OUT NOW | Lots of PURPLE and ORANGE!

[Womp the Cat]

Hey there folks! I have a juicy update full of orange and purple goodness just in time for Halloween!

 

Mekanism E2:

adds 6 new maps and 1 secret map to the Mekanism wad. 

Map 12 is an awesomely spooky @Thelokk Map. and the secret map is kind of a collaborative effort between the two of us!

I'm pretty happy with the game play overall, but I changed some fights rather drastically at the last minute on maps 10 and 11, so I'm open to rebalancing them.

I made some minor visual changes to maps in the first episode (1-6) but really not much.

 

I begrudgingly got my act together and fixed some of the sprites (altering the colours of some completely!) 

 

I added a juicy new Hud and text to the main menu.

 

 

 

 

 

IWAD: DOOM2

Format: Boom

Target Source Ports: Tested in DSDA, WOOF, BOOM, and GZDOOM (Map 31 will slow to a crawl in Gz doom, better to use a boom derived sourceport). thanks to @Clippy and @ScrappyMcDoogerton for their most excellent playtesting abilities on e1 and thanks to Thelokk, @ScrappyMcDoogerton, and @GarrettChan for their playtesting of E2. Complevel should be 9.

 

I haven't implemented it in a mapinfo, but zdoom derived ports should not use jump/crouch. freelook is to your own flavor though. 

 

DOWNLOAD: MEKe2.zip

 

 

 

Dehacked is now in a deh lump inside the wad, mostly pretty much only for strings.

Screen Shots (Now includes shots of e2!)

Spoiler

Tunes and Textures!

Spoiler

Arse - Megasphere

Sad Science Fiction - @ZeMystic

Journal- Aggozino (Sunlust)

Shepard's Tone - Megasphere

Ogre's Theme - Tekken

Under Death - Mark Klem

Warmonger Astronomy - ZeMystic

Begin Transmission - ZeMystic

Snow Angels - Mt Pain27

Halls of Wandering Spirits - Myrgharok

Malek's Bastion - Blood Omen Legacy of Kane

Guardhouse - Resident Evil

Grandfather Clocktower - Viscra Maelstrom

Last Day - Majora's Mask (Speed of Doom)

Blade Runner Title Theme - Vangelis (not sure who sequenced it, its the one from 3ha)

 

Textures come from all over the show; Jiffybag, Dark Forces (I think?), CC4tex, Tangerine Nightmare, Sunder, and a bunch more, I will try compile a more thorough list, when I get to making a txt. in the meantime, if you see something of yours and you want that sweet credit let me know!

 

 

 

 

 

 

IF YOU HATE PLATFORMING READ BELOW

Spoiler

On map03 Spit and Polish, there is a shootable switch which will open a teleporter at the beginning of the platform section that allows the player to skip the most difficult parts of the platforming, making it significantly easier. 

 

 

KNOWN BUGS:

Spoiler

Map06 Karoo Wilds - Monsters get stuck in the floor in near the gorge, I cannot for the life of me figure out why this happens. but it can make 100% impossible on Map06 if anyone can help me figure it out, it would be very much appreciated. FIXED

 

 

Edited October 27, 2022 by Womp the Cat : Big ol update

[FEDEX]

Congrat. for the release!! Now we can have a try too ;)

[ScrappyMcDoogerton]

Congratulations buddy, it was a pleasure to help you get this wad released!

[Nootsy-Nootsy]

Nice mapset! I somehow didn't die (little morale back for me) but I really thought I was going to at several points. Some cool setpieces like the opening room in map 4. I didn't look behind me and I dealt with an archvile and a whole bunch of imps with just a shotgun and plasma. Lots of situations like that where I felt underequipped were fun. Look forward to episode 2, sometime in the future.

On the final map I had two floor hell knights and a missing texture, but that's all the bugs I noticed.

Spoiler

 

 

Though, I would like to mention the palette swap is a bit weird. The biggest issue I can point to is the pinkies having actual bright pink spots on them while facing forward, but other angles just go back to normal pinky demon. I think there could be some work on editing the sprites to fit better with the color scheme. 

I feel like if I'm going to complain about that I should offer to help with it and/or the status bar. I wouldn't trust me with art though.

[Womp the Cat]

3 hours ago, Nootsy-Nootsy said:

Nice mapset! I somehow didn't die (little morale back for me) but I really thought I was going to at several points. Some cool setpieces like the opening room in map 4. I didn't look behind me and I dealt with an archvile and a whole bunch of imps with just a shotgun and plasma. Lots of situations like that where I felt underequipped were fun. Look forward to episode 2, sometime in the future.

 

Thanks so much for playing! did you manage not to die on UV? that's impressive! I am so glad you had a good time.

 

3 hours ago, Nootsy-Nootsy said:

On the final map I had two floor hell knights and a missing texture, but that's all the bugs I noticed.

 

Thanks, I thought the texture I had put there was a regular old doom2 texture so that's weird, I also couldn't seem to replicate it in the editor even after removing the updated texture wad. but I replaced it with a different texture, that definitely works and I think looks nicer as well. The Hell Knights... Ugh I actually should mention this in the opening post, It's the only bug I couldn't figure out.. some how they are getting stuck under the floor, I have reshaped those sectors a bunch, changed heights etc. no luck, if someone has any idea what the problem is or how it can be resolved please let me know. 

 

3 hours ago, Nootsy-Nootsy said:

 

Though, I would like to mention the palette swap is a bit weird. The biggest issue I can point to is the pinkies having actual bright pink spots on them while facing forward, but other angles just go back to normal pinky demon. I think there could be some work on editing the sprites to fit better with the color scheme. 

I feel like if I'm going to complain about that I should offer to help with it and/or the status bar. I wouldn't trust me with art though.

Overall I'm pretty happy with the palette (it has it's own charm), So gonna chalk most of that up to taste. and I'm no sprite smith, so We'll just have to pretend the pinkies have a strange growth. ;)

 

Thanks so much again for playing! The next episode should be a real step up!

[LadyMistDragon]

I'm not sure if it's been mentioned but in the northwest of Karoo Gorge, the rocky outcrop between the two Cyberdemons has a little texturing error in the depression on the north side.

 

 

[Womp the Cat]

1 minute ago, LadyMistDragon said:

I'm not sure if it's been mentioned but in the northwest of Karoo Gorge, the rocky outcrop between the two Cyberdemons has a little texturing error in the depression on the north side.

 

Thanks so much! it's a new one! I will fix it this eve!

[Womp the Cat]

Alrighty fixed the texture and updated the zip in the original post! thanks @LadyMistDragon. Let me know what you think of the maps when you get through em. 

[Clippy]

These maps are cool I very much enjoyed the colour palette and had fun playing them 

 

Kudos!

 

 

[RED77]

Hey. I begin to play this. Love the fist map, but in the second one I can't find the blue key anywere. Maybe I'm blind or I'm missing something.

[LadyMistDragon]

I had the time to finish them....great stuff! Visually, things just got more impressive the further in one goes. While largely incidental, some of the ambushes coming toward the end of maps are incredibly well-timed. I especially liked the double Arch-vile pincer in Map 05 (I found the name ironic when there were comparably few spiders). The chaotic fighting afterwards was absolutely glorious. Map 06 was an excellent way to conclude things. Despite basically being full-slaughter there was so much room to move, and only one (but EVILY) placed Arch-vile oddly enough.

 

A couple of little things that probably boil down to individual taste - I didn't really like how the Super Shotgun in Map 03 was located in a rather cumbersome secret ledge and the hidden rocket launcher in Map 04 should probably have something slightly more visible in front of the closet, like some futuristic equivalent to the candle. Otherwise, it's extremely hard to tell if the wall is misaligned or whatever (I'm not sure there are visible markings there).

[Thelokk]

MAP01:

 

[Womp the Cat]

7 hours ago, RED77 said:

Hey. I begin to play this. Love the fist map, but in the second one I can't find the blue key anywere. Maybe I'm blind or I'm missing something.

Thanks Red! big oopsie on my part, the blue key wasn't tagged on a couple of difficulties. I have fixed this issue. and updated the OP with the fixed version.  let me know how you get along with the rest of it!

 

@Thelokk Thanks! Also fixed and updated!

 

7 hours ago, LadyMistDragon said:

I had the time to finish them....great stuff! Visually, things just got more impressive the further in one goes. While largely incidental, some of the ambushes coming toward the end of maps are incredibly well-timed. I especially liked the double Arch-vile pincer in Map 05 (I found the name ironic when there were comparably few spiders). The chaotic fighting afterwards was absolutely glorious. Map 06 was an excellent way to conclude things. Despite basically being full-slaughter there was so much room to move, and only one (but EVILY) placed Arch-vile oddly enough.

 

A couple of little things that probably boil down to individual taste - I didn't really like how the Super Shotgun in Map 03 was located in a rather cumbersome secret ledge and the hidden rocket launcher in Map 04 should probably have something slightly more visible in front of the closet, like some futuristic equivalent to the candle. Otherwise, it's extremely hard to tell if the wall is misaligned or whatever (I'm not sure there are visible markings there).

 

Thank you so much for the feedback, its great to hear you have enjoyed the visuals and the combat. I think that archie fight on map05 you mention, is probably my favorite fight in the set so far, also I didn't catch the lack of spiders in Sand Spider which is more of a reference to the crushing structure at the end, lol. but I do kinda like the irony. 

perhaps not allowing the secret switch to close again would make it less cumbersome? I will also look at better signposting for the rocket launcher on 04.  

 

Did any monsters get trapped for you on map06? 

 

Thanks again to everyone who has played so far! 

[Thelokk]

1 hour ago, Womp the Cat said:

Thanks again to everyone who has played so far! 

 

It's a fun mapset! At its heart it feels like a traditional techbase (reminds me a bit of DBP's desert themed packs) but the purple details really add some extra flair.  

[eharper256]

Did a quick playthrough of maps 1 & 2 in Walpurgis.

Pretty light and snappy, which is always my favourite kind of level! I like it!

[Toilet_Wine_Connoisseur]

really enjoyed playing, purple is the most BASED color. I had a lot of fun seeing it used so tastefully throughout

[Womp the Cat]

15 hours ago, eharper256 said:

Did a quick playthrough of maps 1 & 2 in Walpurgis.

Pretty light and snappy, which is always my favourite kind of level! I like it!

This was really fun to watch, thanks for making it!

 

5 hours ago, Toilet_Wine_Connoisseur said:

really enjoyed playing, purple is the most BASED color. I had a lot of fun seeing it used so tastefully throughout

Purple is too nice in Doom. I'm glad you enjoyed the set so far. and thanks for the compliments on the colours.

 

[Maribo]

Ran through these this morning and had a good time. Always lovely to have another wad showing off a purple color scheme. Suggested for fans of tech bases that feel big and spacious.

On 3/18/2022 at 7:18 PM, Womp the Cat said:

Also: I would love to set up some par times in the dehacked, so the first 6 saveless (non tas obviously) playthroughs people send me, will be used for setting par times.

I have no idea what kind of runs you wanted for these, or if anyone else has done them already, but I did a couple of decently paced maxes:

mek01m211.zip

mek02m240.zip

[Jaccident]

I absolutely love purple maps, I'll play this ASAP

[galileo31dos01]

Hello, I played through this last week. I enjoyed how decently spacious some of the earlier maps felt, particularly 03 and 04, while 02 played with cool stuff in corridors and 01 was trickier than I expected (or maybe I could have simply SG the archvile right away instead of running into hitscan crossfire). At same time, the space might have felt misjudged in places, like the overly sized canyon in 05, and one could argue that the cave in 06 is an easy camping area to command, but none of that is really a flaw. The purple looked good in combination with brown/gray. There's room for improvement on texture transitions here and there, while you got a solid hand of lighting imo. As a personal favorite it'd be the chain of secrets in m05 prior the platforming bit, although also the fight that followed was a highlight. 

 

Some stuff:

 

- In m01 there were missing flats on the last room, specifically the same area Thelokk showed.

- In m03, an imp was stuck in the midtex (thing 17).

- In m06, two monsters were sunken in the ground for some reason. If this is related to nodebuilder oddities, try changing to a different one.

- Same map, missing flat here.

 

Looking forward your future maps!

[Arwel]

Nice mapset! All maps are intriguing to explore, and the last few also offer a decent challenge on higher difficulties, something both slaughtery and plutonian, with more thorough pathing than average slaughter and with more space for maneuver than I'd expect from combat puzzle department. Even though the challenge was enough for me personally (I died at least few times in each of the later maps), I think it would benefit from being a little bit harder on UV, as I definitely expect people who can beat individual Plutonia or Sunlust maps UV-saveless, to beat this whole WAD in their first UV-blind run.

[Womp the Cat]

On 3/24/2022 at 4:01 PM, Maribo said:

Ran through these this morning and had a good time. Always lovely to have another wad showing off a purple color scheme. Suggested for fans of tech bases that feel big and spacious.

I have no idea what kind of runs you wanted for these, or if anyone else has done them already, but I did a couple of decently paced maxes:

 

Thanks for these Demos, I will watch them this evening, and very much looking forward to that.

I should have stated that I was looking more for speed than Max times, but I will include these as Max pars in the txt!

Thanks for playing, I am glad you enjoyed the set.

 

6 hours ago, galileo31dos01 said:

Excellent and Useful Feedback

Thanks for playing Galileo, I'm not sure if you were using an older version. But I am pretty sure I fixed those textures TheLokk mentioned. I will have a look a bit later and will update the zip later with the fixes for the imp in the mid tex. I am not clued up on Nodes and their builders, I will look into it, it is a known issue I am eager to fix.

 

3 hours ago, Vrhrlv said:

More great feedback!

Thanks for playing, I have been concerned that the set was a bit too easy overall, it's been a nagging bug at the back of my mind. These 6 maps will however form the first episode of a larger set I am already well under way with, and I reckon I am doing a good job of escalating the difficulty. If after e2's release the sentiment remains that overall the maps are too easy I will look at overhauling some of the fights to make them harder on UV. there are a few places I can already think of adjusting to make the set meaner from the getgo. but the other Idea I wanted to entertain was that of a mapset which could be a nice springboard for people who want to learn to play more slaughter oriented gameplay, while being forgiving enough, that newer slaughter players wouldn't get frustrated. Personally I cannot beat a sunlust map without saves. so attempting to cater to those players specifically feels like I would miss the mark, and then also alienate players who are more similarly skilled to myself.  

 

 

[Pistoolkip]

Had a go at this, great WAD (despite the Sewer Level^tm)

 

Here's a WAD overview and a playthrough of map 4:
 

 

[Womp the Cat]

BUMPING THIS WITH A BIG OL UPDATE! COME GET E2 FOLKS.

[Thelokk]

It's out! It was a pleasure working on this, most fun I had mapping in a long while. Quality all round. Big whomps to @Womp the Cat for letting me in on the party.

 

Just really make sure you don't play map 31 on GZ unless you enjoy slideshows XD

[Womp the Cat]

21 minutes ago, Thelokk said:

It's out! It was a pleasure working on this, most fun I had mapping in a long while. Quality all round. Big whomps to @Womp the Cat for letting me in on the party.

 

Just really make sure you don't play map 31 on GZ unless you enjoy slideshows XD

Oh yes! super important. I'll pop a note about it in main post XD

 

[knifeworld]

I swear I've seen that tower from the last shot in screenos from a different wad using vanilla marble textures, so at first I thought it was that one but heavily revamped.
But it seems this is something else entirely and it looks awesome so it's going right to the front of my to-play list (with like 5 other wads, lol).

[Womp the Cat]

New day new bump XD

 

[Dantosking]

Really cool levels. When I've seen those screenshots at the first time I thought - "daym, another evil slaughterwad that doesn't forgive even one mistake". And I was wondered when I've felt this simple and friendly map gameplay. Complete only 4 maps, gonna finish it (sorry for bad english)
 

 

Edited November 5, 2022 by Dantosking

[Womp the Cat]

Heyo @Dantosking and @Pistoolkip! thanks so much for these, I got round to watching them today! Pistool (sorry I realize you made your video ages ago XD I think I was on a doom break when you posted it!) Great runs thanks for playing. episode 2 definitely hikes the difficulty a bit. particularly in a few places. hope you folks enjoyed the rest of the Wad!