Rupture: a Ultimate Doom episode ready for playtesting!

[nicolas monti]

I don't have a schedule, this maybe will turn into an episode but I'm not sure if I'll be able to make it, I'm currently traversing the worst moments of my life so I wanted to get distracted and map again!

(EDIT: feeling better now)

 

Expect my usual old school abstract /organic style. It should run on vanilla perfectly (EDIT: not sure now as maps get bigger an more complex).

Thanks!!

 

EDIT: updated file, episode complete!

 

E4M1: broken inside

E4M2: begging for mercy

E4M3: no contact

E4M4: stuck in the past

E4M5: unfinished dreams

E4M6: fading hope

E4M7: never reaching out

E4M8: incompatible ways

E4M9: hotuko no ken

 

https://www.doomworld.com/idgames/levels/doom/Ports/p-r/rupture

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited September 15, 2023 by nicolas monti

[RED77]

Sorry to hear about the bad times. 
Nice map. A little too hard for my level. But I enjoyed it.

Hope everything goes well!

 

[Noiser]

I love your map style, will play it asap!
 

9 hours ago, nicolas monti said:

I'm currently traversing the worst moments of my life so I wanted to get distracted and map again!

I'm on the same boat. And mapping always worked for me as a relief through hard times. Whatever it is I hope you get better soon.

Edited June 25, 2022 by Noiser

[hakros]

I really sorry for your problems i'm also having familiar problems right now.

 

Your map is very nice congrats.

 

Thanks so much for share it :-) !

[rzh]

10 hours ago, nicolas monti said:

I'm currently traversing the worst moments of my life so I wanted to get distracted and map again!

I'm sorry to hear that.

You quickly became my favourite mapper, not just for the maps themselves but also for the entire atmosphere surrounding your online presence.

I can't think of anyone else that ever made an Etruscan map or put out a WAD with only Post-Punk/ New Wave MIDIs.

I'm excited to see more maps from you but I wish it would have been under better circumstances. I'm hoping you would be able to overcome this period quickly.

Best of luck to you, and thank you for everything you've put out!

 

P.S: is the name of the file supposed to be in Latin? In Romanian "rupt" means broken so I was able to catch that.

Edited June 25, 2022 by rzh

[pcorf]

Looks gorgeous. Love your beautiful abstract and messy style and the gameplay is always a great challenge.

[Biodegradable]

Sorry to hear things aren't going well right now, Nic. Please enjoy a playthrough of your map ripping me a new one hehe.

 

 

[nicolas monti]

Well thanks to all for all the care and support!

 

On 6/24/2022 at 11:20 PM, Noiser said:

I love your map style, will play it asap!
 

I'm on the same boat. And mapping always worked for me as a relief through hard times. Whatever it is I hope you get better soon.

I think it is in fact useful as it gets you focused to something instead of thinking too much about what you're going through

 

On 6/25/2022 at 5:42 AM, rzh said:

I'm sorry to hear that.

You quickly became my favourite mapper, not just for the maps themselves but also for the entire atmosphere surrounding your online presence.

I can't think of anyone else that ever made an Etruscan map or put out a WAD with only Post-Punk/ New Wave MIDIs.

I'm excited to see more maps from you but I wish it would have been under better circumstances. I'm hoping you would be able to overcome this period quickly.

Best of luck to you, and thank you for everything you've put out!

 

P.S: is the name of the file supposed to be in Latin? In Romanian "rupt" means broken so I was able to catch that.

 

Thanks, I'll try to find a balance where mapping does not drag my attention from everything else with the cost of losing people or othe activities.

I think the wad will be called rupture, hence the filename.

 

On 6/25/2022 at 8:37 AM, Biodegradable said:

Sorry to hear things aren't going well right now, Nic. Please enjoy a playthrough of your map ripping me a new one hehe.

 

Thanks a lot for the video, I'm surprised you managed to succeed without the chaingun because there is one at the very north of the map, this feedback made me realize it's not a bad idea to add a secondary one further into the map if you miss the first one.

[rzh]

Spoiler

I was able to play it to completion today. I think I finished it on my 3rd try (UV, saveless). I really enjoyed the map and the last fight was your classic style of trap.

I played so many of your maps by this point that I was able to beat it without even using the Plasma Rifle (picking it up was the last thing I did before exiting the map, the center was too crowded with monsters). My heartbeat was way above the speed limit during the fight because of it :P

I really got to ask about this switch though, is it the secret(s?) I missed, or is it just a random wall?

Spoiler

[nicolas monti]

6 hours ago, rzh said:

  Reveal hidden contents

I was able to play it to completion today. I think I finished it on my 3rd try (UV, saveless). I really enjoyed the map and the last fight was your classic style of trap.

I played so many of your maps by this point that I was able to beat it without even using the Plasma Rifle (picking it up was the last thing I did before exiting the map, the center was too crowded with monsters). My heartbeat was way above the speed limit during the fight because of it :P

I really got to ask about this switch though, is it the secret(s?) I missed, or is it just a random wall?

  Reveal hidden contents

 

oops, I'll change that texture, it was originaly meant to lower the platform that leads you out of the pool. Surprised that you didn't use the plasma gun for the last fight, not impossible but rocket use there can be messy when the area gets crowded.

[rzh]

8 hours ago, nicolas monti said:

Surprised that you didn't use the plasma gun for the last fight, not impossible but rocket use there can be messy when the area gets crowded.

I don't mean to monopolize the thread, so last comment from me for a while.

I had to abuse circle strafing, infighting and weapon switching (probably the first time I ever had to prioritize pinkies). I think I exited the map with about 29% health. I also got lucky that one baron got stuck (the one where the switch is, perhaps that ceiling could be a bit higher?).

But as I said, big fan of your style and this map feels like a solid introduction to what could be a pretty hard episode.

Playing your maps got me through some pretty rough times, so hopefully making them will have the same effect on you. I wish you all the best!

[WH-Wilou84]

Best of luck to you Nicolas.
Here's a FDA recorded on UV, in the eventuality that watching me suffer could cheer you up : https://www.dropbox.com/s/bkryemnuwca8ld2/ruptu01e4m1-fda-wh.zip?dl=1

Great level.
Since health is so scarce, even mere zombies suddenly become terrifying.
Finding more secrets would certainly have helped me to survive the Plasma Gun fight.

 

[Mercury Spade]

 

Tried your mod out using my rpg mod. I started recording in the middle of organizing my inventory and end it after I spent enough time in the map. I wanted to explore one more spot but couldn't figure it out and just stop recording there. I never figured it out.

[nicolas monti]

On 6/27/2022 at 8:20 AM, rzh said:

I don't mean to monopolize the thread, so last comment from me for a while.

I had to abuse circle strafing, infighting and weapon switching (probably the first time I ever had to prioritize pinkies). I think I exited the map with about 29% health. I also got lucky that one baron got stuck (the one where the switch is, perhaps that ceiling could be a bit higher?).

But as I said, big fan of your style and this map feels like a solid introduction to what could be a pretty hard episode.

Playing your maps got me through some pretty rough times, so hopefully making them will have the same effect on you. I wish you all the best!

 

Man no problem with that, post whenever you want, sometimes I answer quickly, sometimes I take my time, I'm usually active when mapping and then I take my vacations out of

 the site. I really don't even know what are the good wads of the year so far.

 

On 6/28/2022 at 5:21 PM, WH-Wilou84 said:

Best of luck to you Nicolas.
Here's a FDA recorded on UV, in the eventuality that watching me suffer could cheer you up : https://www.dropbox.com/s/bkryemnuwca8ld2/ruptu01e4m1-fda-wh.zip?dl=1

Great level.
Since health is so scarce, even mere zombies suddenly become terrifying.
Finding more secrets would certainly have helped me to survive the Plasma Gun fight.

 

 

Thanks man, I'll watch it, as udoom has a limited bestiary I think I'll mostly rely in close quarters combat style with a lot of shotgun guy pain.

 

On 6/29/2022 at 3:10 PM, Mercury Spade said:

 

Tried your mod out using my rpg mod. I started recording in the middle of organizing my inventory and end it after I spent enough time in the map. I wanted to explore one more spot but couldn't figure it out and just stop recording there. I never figured it out.

 

Thanks man, take into account that jumping breaks the map but you are not meant to know that if I not clarify from the begining so it's ok, I had fun with the video because the nice violent nature of the mod!

 

There is E4M2 ready for testing:

Begging for mercy

 

https://www.mediafire.com/file/is90y3iz0pllyrp/ruptu02.wad/file

 

 

[rzh]

I really like this map, longer and harder than the first one, with lots of neat traps and a non-linear layout, all done in your classic style.

What I liked the most was the usage of nukage, barrels and crushers in most fights, I know some people hate them but I feel that they make Ultimate Doom fights feel more dynamic and you won't miss the Doom 2 monsters too much with these environmental hazards.

I've had 5? blind attempts and I still haven't finished the map, but I never got frustrated when I died and it always happened in different spots, so the map flows really nice, and the difficulty is pretty good.

 

I do have a bug to report, this wall in the yellow key room doesn't lower for me on complevel 3/ complevel vanilla (played in the latest version of Woof). It does lower in complevel 9/ boom, however.

[nicolas monti]

8 hours ago, rzh said:

I really like this map, longer and harder than the first one, with lots of neat traps and a non-linear layout, all done in your classic style.

What I liked the most was the usage of nukage, barrels and crushers in most fights, I know some people hate them but I feel that they make Ultimate Doom fights feel more dynamic and you won't miss the Doom 2 monsters too much with these environmental hazards.

I've had 5? blind attempts and I still haven't finished the map, but I never got frustrated when I died and it always happened in different spots, so the map flows really nice, and the difficulty is pretty good.

 

I do have a bug to report, this wall in the yellow key room doesn't lower for me on complevel 3/ complevel vanilla (played in the latest version of Woof). It does lower in complevel 9/ boom, however.

 

Thanks for the words man, crushers, damaging floors and barrels will be at use in this wad. The extensive gstone carelessly combined with tech pannels is a reminiscence of some e2/e3 maps and those old school 90s maps.

The bug was fixed now, it was a really stupid mistake, that sector had 0 height so the caco put there was blocking the action.

[sandwedge]

this was fun, great episode 4 feel.  lots of cool looking abstract areas and nice lighting, and the map had a nice difficulty for me that had some challenging areas but I got through alive.  definitely interested in anything else you might release this year!

 

 

[nicolas monti]

On 7/2/2022 at 11:43 AM, sandwedge said:

this was fun, great episode 4 feel.  lots of cool looking abstract areas and nice lighting, and the map had a nice difficulty for me that had some challenging areas but I got through alive.  definitely interested in anything else you might release this year!

 

 

Thanks for the video!

The theme will be total abstraction with a blend of all the episode's texturing.

 

Now e4m3: no contact

https://www.mediafire.com/file/mbyjg4exs5qdadw/ruptu03.wad/file

 

It ended up larger than I wanted but it shouldn't take much time to be completed since it's mostly flooded with weaklings and barrels.

 

 

[sandwedge]

On 7/6/2022 at 3:51 PM, nicolas monti said:

Now e4m3: no contact

https://www.mediafire.com/file/mbyjg4exs5qdadw/ruptu03.wad/file

 

Hey there, played through this third map on stream, has a really cool feel that reminded me and a couple viewers of Japanese Community Project map 29 hazmat hazama.  It's a cool journey through some abstract and angular places with a very open feel, lots of interesting exploration. 

 

Unfortunately I had an issue in DSDA-Doom at the final switches, where only the blue torch wall lowered while the others did not, so I couldn't finish the level normally.  Clippy tried to figure it out, and we found it worked correctly in GZDoom but not in prboom+ and DSDA.  I just started using DSDA and used complevel 3, though clippy said that wouldn't matter.  Other than that Clippy on stream and after the stream could not figure out what the issue was, since they all seemed to be identical actions, meaning if the blue should work the others should too (lowering the cacos worked on one of them at least).  Hopefully you can figure out what the issue was, possibly even on my end since Clippy wasn't able to test in ports other than GZDoom.

 

The other thing is that in such a large and abstract level in places I had a hard time with progression, specifically the red key where I missed a small hallway which had a button to lower the cylinder.  However, this was also a factor in hazmat hazama, so I was kinda used to it in this style of map.  Still something to think about, not sure how you could change it or signpost it more but it may help.

 

Btw, nice BFG secret, it threw me and clippy for a loop before I was able to strafe into it at JUST the right angle.  Didn't notice that the wall could open up though.  Anyway, like I said other than the issues that can be fixed I had a great time with this, it was visually and spatially stimulating and had some tight, tricky combat scenarios!

 

 

(video linked to chapter at 5:12:00)

 

edit: also maybe edit the thread title to let people know you made a new map, I didn't realize you already made the second!

Edited July 10, 2022 by sandwedge

[Cacodemon187]

@nicolas monti I finished maps 1 and 2, but got softlocked in the BFG secret thanks to my sinful greed...
I recorded FDAs for all three maps, with deaths included -> https://www.mediafire.com/file/96msdn96eqzqu4q/ruptuFDAs01.rar/file

 

A few thoughts on the maps:

E4M1: An alright opener. I like how the outdoor areas looked, I love dark courtyards with bright skies! The encounters were fun and not too dragged out, and I didn't have any problems navigating the map.

E4M2: This one was tough. Not only because I blew myself like three times, but because the progression was rather obscure... I wasn't too sure were to go to at first, but I managed to figure it out. Not much else to this map though. It's a lot harder than the first one, and the encounters will be mean if you don't know what's coming. Perhaps the secrets can even the odds on this one, given that there's 8 of them and I only found 1 lol

 

E4M3: I like this one a lot! It's a big interconnected map with tons of areas to explore. Sadly, I couldn't finish it, so I can't say if the progression is too obtuse, but I still had fun exploring while I could. One thing about the visuals that caught my attention is the spiral stairway at the center of the map. The textures and colors make it feel very warm in contrast with the rest of the map. You're probably going to go through this stairway multiple times while exploring, so it's good that it differentiates from the other areas. Now, regarding why I couldn't finish the map... Let's just say I was too smart for my own good ;)
I managed to get to the BFG secret by jumping from the key-doors area, and softlocked myself. I'll play it again tomorrow and give my thoughts then!

[nicolas monti]

Thanks to all for the comments and the demos /stream

I want to point out a couple of things on e4m3.

 

1) the BFG is not meant to be gathered by straferunnig, it may induce softlock as mentioned, I'll fix that by means of another obstacle :), in fact I thought it might be reached by that technique in the correct hands but I just missed the entire check to prevent it.

 

2) exit walls not lowering:

I thing it has to do with the candelabra and the red torch being too close one another, I'll separate them a bit.

I know I should test this with prboom but it gives me a lot of trouble in my pc.

When I configure the doombuilder test with prboom a message pops out saying the Iwad cannot be found, that does not happen when running prboom alone..

 

Now working on E4M4!

 

 

[sandwedge]

3 hours ago, nicolas monti said:

1) the BFG is not meant to be gathered by straferunnig, it may induce softlock as mentioned, I'll fix that by means of another obstacle :), in fact I thought it might be reached by that technique in the correct hands but I just missed the entire check to prevent it.

 

2) exit walls not lowering:

I thing it has to do with the candelabra and the red torch being too close one another, I'll separate them a bit.

 

Wow didn't realize the BFG was not supposed to be a straferun lol, thankfully i didn't get softlocked.  It's kind of a fun strafe but understand if you block it off.

 

With the exit walls, clippy actually tested this out by removing all the torches and candelabras from the walls and it still somehow didn't work.  We could not figure it out for the life of us.

[nicolas monti]

34 minutes ago, sandwedge said:

 

Wow didn't realize the BFG was not supposed to be a straferun lol, thankfully i didn't get softlocked.  It's kind of a fun strafe but understand if you block it off.

 

With the exit walls, clippy actually tested this out by removing all the torches and candelabras from the walls and it still somehow didn't work.  We could not figure it out for the life of us.

 

If it's not about the torches it must have to do with two irregular sectors lowering too close from one another with the same trigger, maybe I'm wrong but it's not the first time this kind of "bug" happens in one of my maps.

Yeah, that kind of straferun seems a miss, tricky because of the low ceiling.

I'll see if I apply the similar concept on another map of the episode.

[nicolas monti]

Fourth map:

E4M4: stuck in the past

https://www.mediafire.com/file/uxjft3crqawnr8e/ruptu04.wad/file

 

It wouldn't surprised me if there is a stuck lowering floor bug here, I hope not, but as I said earlier I currently cannot test with a port other than zdoom in dbuilder2.

 

 

 

[rzh]

Maybe you can try Woof with -complevel vanilla or Crispy Doom for testing (if it's meant to be limit-removing vanilla).

Also, quick question, do you have any plans to revisit old WADs to polish them up/ fix bugs?

[nicolas monti]

12 hours ago, rzh said:

Maybe you can try Woof with -complevel vanilla or Crispy Doom for testing (if it's meant to be limit-removing vanilla).

Also, quick question, do you have any plans to revisit old WADs to polish them up/ fix bugs?

 

I'll try woof, I've tried also crispy but it sends an error message and the game never launches, weird things happen to me.

About revisiting, adding things to older maps it's not something I have in mind but a definitive version of Eviltech without coop bugs and a fix to a couple of unreachable secrets on map19 is something I consider sometimes.

 

[nicolas monti]

E4M5: unfinished dreams

ready for testing

 

https://www.mediafire.com/file/03tjiv5bzlgof5t/ruptu05.wad/file

 

 

[nicolas monti]

E4M6: "fading hope" is ready for testing!

This one pays some tribute to compohso, one of my favorite textures.

 

https://www.mediafire.com/file/1oah5j3m2v4qb9y/ruptu06.wad/file

 

 

[sandwedge]

Hey there, hadn't played these in a bit so I did map 4 on stream last night.  To be honest it probably wasnt the best pick for the end of a 6 hour stream as these levels can be a bit tricky to navigate with all the abstract design.  I know some of that is intentional design, but it might still be nice to make progression a bit clearer here and there.  I think I enjoyed the first couple levels a bit more because they were more straightforward.  I did find a couple softlocks, the blue key platform keeps going down, and dropping down to get the berserk near the end, played in DSDA complevel 3 so might be specific to that.  That last fight is actually deceptively difficult with the space and ammo constraints.  Still a cool level in the usual amped up 90's design sense!

 

(linked to timecode)

 

 

[Ayeloo]

Huge fan of crazy colors
I'm gonna try and not spoil myself too much on this thread and just pick it up and play it soon.

Happy to see people finding solace with a hobby like level design, hope things get better over there