Death Exit Episode 1 RELEASED - 7 limit-removing maps for mapinfo ports

[Faceman2000]

EPISODE 1 IS RELEASED!!

 

Hello all! Death Exit is a planned megawad currently in the works. Parts of this project date back to around 2019, but work really began in earnest around November 2021. The eventual plan is a 36-level megawad with five episodes of seven maps each. Format is Doom 2 limit-removing project, and a port with MAPINFO support is required. It has been tested in GZDoom, DSDA-Doom, and Doom Retro. The Bethesda Unity Port should also work, but unfortunately my laptop with it installed is out of commission right now so I haven't been able to test the latest revisions. I have tested the levels extensively and believe they are bugfree, but please let me know if you find any - and of course any and all feedback is welcome. I'm still a relatively new mapper after all!

 

This mapset aims for vanilla+ levels of detail, with an attempted focus on atmosphere, inspired by projects such as NEIS, KDIKIZD, and D64D2. The first episode only sees some of the Doom 2 bestiary in action, alongside a couple custom enemies in the latter half. Coop starts are present but mostly untested - there shouldn't be any softlocks but that's all I can guarantee.

 

Link: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1I3YSzzPhA2EUJALkZxgmwic1Bh_9WCqC/view?usp=sharing

 

Maplist, music, credits, and so forth:

Spoiler

(All music is from IWADS or by Varis Alpha)
 

Episode 1: Blood Red Planet
 

01 - Damnation (Terminate and Torture)

02 - Subpool Storage (Seabats)

03 - Lockdown (Arcane)

04 - Containment Overflow (The Demon's Dead)

05 - Corrupt Reservoir (The Dark City)

06 - The Black Pit (Wretched Abyss)

 

Secret - Excursion (Aris Nesting Grounds)

 

Title Music: Freedom Is So Below

Intermission: I Don't Want to Leave You

End Text: Contempt (I Hate You)

 

Credits:

Textures: @ItsNatureToDie, @Jimmy, @Xaser, @DASI-I, @NaturalTvventy, @Cage, @Amuscaria, @dotQLL, @Quill (There's also a bunch of textures inspired by other people's works that I've remade myself, so if you see anything almost familiar then thank you too for the inspiration!)

Sprites: Amuscaria

Music: @Varis Alpha

Troubleshooting Map02: @TimeOfDeath666 (Thank you so much!)

Archvile flame DeHacked trick: @Bees With Teeth

Map03 contains some heavily modified pieces of E1M4 from the Doom Alphas, by Tom Hall.

 

Future additions:

Dedicated DM arenas for all maps

Coop/Solo-Net play implemented and tested

 

Screenies:

Spoiler

 

Edited April 28, 2023 by Faceman2000

[Dusty_Rhodes]

Looks very unique, I'll be happy to check it out. A one - man 32 map wad is certainly an achievement!

[ScrappyMcDoogerton]

The immense amount of detailing in these maps is insane you must have worked tirelessly for years to build these. Cacoward winner for sure!

[Solmyr]

Looks like its going to be a nice vanillaesque treat to play.

 

@ScrappyMcDoogerton Dude, no every megawad has to be "Ancient Age of Elementalism Eviternity X"

[Lizardcommando]

This looks neat. I'll have to play this soon.

[Bri0che]

Very good set dude ! I particularly loved the map with the death exit scenario

[Gothic]

Spoiler

The actual map 2 looks pretty good so far. There are plenty of HOMs but I guess it's not finished yet.

 

[Faceman2000]

3 minutes ago, Gothic said:

  Hide contents

The actual map 2 looks pretty good so far. There are plenty of HOMs but I guess it's not finished yet.

 

Spoiler

Yeah, that map is still a work in progress and I’ve had a hard time making the gimmick work cleanly. I thought I’d stamped most of them out but this doesn’t surprise me since any time I change anything it seems to make more. Thanks for checking it out!

 

[Rudolph]

Looking forward to the finished mapset!

[DSC]

Marvelous! Although you might want to tone down the pop-up monsters a little. Like others said, a few HOM's here and there, but still some solid stuff! Really enjoyed the spire on MAP 20, best vanilla Doom one I've seen!

[Nikku4211]

Nice.

Are you already working on a UMAPINFO for this WAD so that the same MAPINFO stuff can be experienced in demo-compatible ports like PrBoom+ and Woof?

[kalensar]

https://zdoom.org/wiki/Universal_Doom_Map_Format

 

To help with UDMF to be more versatile. =)

[Faceman2000]

Hey all, I hope everyone who played the mapset got a good chuckle out of it. Or at the very least wasn't too mad I'd wasted their time. I've updated the first post with an accurate look at what this project is and where it's at, and there's a link to the first two maps if you want to test them out. Map02 has had some significant bugfixes done to it since the April 1st release as a secret map.

[Faceman2000]

Just a quick update to let y'all know that progress continues:

 

Map04 is 95% done - just needs some gameplay tuning and a couple secrets messed with, but it's otherwise good to go. Map03 is taking a little longer, but is shaping up well. The northern hallway there needs a lot of work still and I haven't started on the southeast corner yet, plus there's a lot of texture work to be done. I've also been working a fair bit on the wads first secret level, but I'm not ready to show that off quite yet. Maps 05, 06, and 07 all have solid starts but are less than 50% done so not worth showing off yet.

 

Map previews:

Spoiler

I'll be sure to update the link up top with the new maps once I'm satisfied with Map03. Progress has been slow and will likely only get slower as my baby girl gets older, but I wanted to let people know what was going on. I also might have to make a version of Map02 without the sinking gimmick - I can't get it to work in BethesDoom and that's the lowest level of compatibility I'm aiming for. Luckily, with MAPINFO I might be able to make it load a different version of the level depending on which source port people are using.

[Faceman2000]

Hey all! Map03 and Map04 are live! Please see the edited post above for the new link!

[ScrappyMcDoogerton]

Nice set so far. I recorded my playthrough of map 04. I missed the RL secret :(

 

 

 

[Faceman2000]

Hey, sorry for the late response! Thank you so much for playing and I'm glad you enjoyed them. The video was also very helpful, thank you for taking the time to record it and share it here!

 

Did you notice any bugs or were there any frustrating combat or progression issues that you found? I've tried to make the progression pretty straightforward and avoid any BS combat, but it's hard to judge objectively as the designer haha.

[StodgyAyatollah]

Have yet to play but found an issue and a fix. Crashes with both dsda-doom and prboom+. R_texturenumforname: SKY3 not found. Using doom 1 textures in doom 2 seems to confuse those ports. At least I'm assuming that's the issue. Adding a SKY3 entry into TEXTURE1 resolves it. I just made a copy of the SKY2 entry and renamed it SKY3 so you could do something like that as a placeholder if you don't have a planned SKY3 yet.  

[Faceman2000]

Oh shoot, I was aware of that issue and thought I’d fixed it before releasing here. I’ll have a corrected version live shortly. Thanks!

[ScrappyMcDoogerton]

If the player falls into this corner in map 02 they will be softlocked:

Spoiler

 

 

Map 03 could really use an ssg there may be a secret one but if the player doesn't find it not having one really makes the map drag as there are a lot of mid-tier demons to shotgun.

[Faceman2000]

Hello all! I appreciate your patience - this has taken a while longer than I had intended. RC1 of Episode 1 should be releasing this weekend! I’m putting the final touches in now, and I’m quite excited to share it with you all!

[Faceman2000]

Episode 1 is released! Oh man, it feels so good to finally be able to put this out there. Please give it a play and let me know what you think! Maps range around ten to twenty minutes of playtime, except map05 which is closer to forty minutes to an hour.

 

I hope you all enjoy! Let's hope I can get E2 out the door a little quicker!