[Now on idgames!] Four Perfectly Fine Lemons | MBF21 mini-episode

[Ravendesk]

 

Four Perfectly Fine Lemons is an MBF21 mini-episode for Doom 2, that consists of 4 puzzle/platforming maps inspired by PS1 Crash Bandicoot games and other platformers of that era. Map 05 is a credits map, Map 06 is a secret credits map that you can access if you manage to exit Map 05 :)

 

Download here: https://www.doomworld.com/idgames/levels/doom2/Ports/0-9/4pfl

 

Update history and the original post below.

 

======== RC4 update ========

 

Changelog:

Spoiler

1. Made it possible to exit Map 05 and added a secret credits level in Map 06 slot.

2. Fixed a possible cheese in a secret area of Map 02.

3. Fixed bug with NoMo in Map 03.

4. Fixed a possible cheese on lower difficulties in Map 03 - just so that players won't be confused by thinking this is the intended progression.

 

======== RC3 update ========

 

Changelog:

Spoiler

 

1. Added ZScript that manually adjust several conveyor belts linedefs length in Map04, making this map playable in GZDoom. The whole wad is now beatable in GZDoom :) Just make sure you have mouselook, jumping and crouching disabled.

2. Adjusted sky offset in Map 03, to make it a bit prettier, you can now see tips of the mountains in the central area.

 

 

======== RC2 update ========

 

Changelog:

Spoiler

 

1. Added NoMo support. Now each map is beatable with "-nomonsters" flag. On NoMo all the platforming is the same as on UV.

Big fights in Map 02 and Map 03 can be skipped on NoMo.

Turret monsters are closed in Map 01 and Map 04 on NoMo.

Secrets in Map 02 and Map 03 can be obtained on NoMo by blowing up all barrels instead of killing all imps. Secret in Map 01 is always accessible on NoMo.

2. Adjusted the sky offset in Map 01, so the tips of the mountains can be seen.

3. Fixed lightning sequence in colored platforms room in Map 03.

4. Fixed textures and unpegged flags for doors in Map 03.

5. Added an "exit" sign near the exit switch in Map 03, as you can't see it's color due to invuln.

6. Fixed a few wrong textures in Map 02.

 

 

======== Original post ========

 

4pfl has several dehacked enemies, including:

 

Green Cyberdemon. Your regular cyber, but with 1000 hp. Note that green and red cybers can infight, use that to your advantage! Both green and red cybers do not count towards the kill count.

 

Red Evil Eye. Evil Eye from Jumpwad that zaps you like an archvile. Cannot be killed, does not count towards the kill count. Sometimes he is your friend, sometimes he is your enemy.

 

Green Evil Eye. Just like Blue Evil Eyes from Magnolia, they shoot you with arachnotron projectiles. However, their fire rate is much slower than the fire rate of their Magnolia brothers. Cannot be killed, do not count towards the kill count.

 

Weakened imp (wimp for short). Same as imp, but has 30 hp. Poor thing. All imps in the wad are weakened. Kill all imps in maps 01-03 to get the secret at the end!

 

Red cybers also have changes to them, but I'll leave that for the players to discover themselves.

 

Difficulty settings are implemented. I have actually put a lot of work into balancing them, so that Doom platforming can be enjoyed by people who do not play platforming stuff regularly. Actually, I'm hoping that even people who usually hate platforming, will have fun on lower difficulties in this wad.

 

UV is pretty hard and is recommended for experienced platforming runners and for the players who want challenge.

HMP is noticeably easier than UV, many platforms are larger, jumps are less precise, but all the jumps are the same in essence. Puzzle fights are almost the same, just a tiny bit easier. If you are unsure how much challenge you want, I recommend selecting HMP for your first playthrough.

HNTR is significantly easier than HMP in terms of platforming, but puzzle fights are once again just a bit easier. I recommend it to everyone who is not the biggest fan of Doom platforming or who just wants to enjoy some puzzles.

 

Compatibility:
The wad was made in MBF21 format, so run it with -complevel 21 flag in dsda-doom or other prboom-based ports.
Also, it uses UMAPINFO, so it requires a port that supports it to get intended map names and skies.

Tested extensively with dsda-doom 0.24.3 -complevel 21.

 

Mouselook, jumping and crouching should be disabled for the best experience.

Visuals were designed with software rendering in mind, but I don't think there is anything that breaks with OpenGL renderer.

 

About GZDoom compatibility: You need a relatively modern GZDoom version, that has MBF21 support. All of the maps were tested with GZDoom 4.8.2. Maps 01-03 work fine, however Map 04 unfortunately does not work as intended due to different conveyor belts behavior in boom/gzdoom. In short, fast conveyors they are too fast in gzdoom. You should use dsda-doom or similar port for Map 04 instead. Since RC3, GZDoom is fully supported in this wad, all maps work fine in it.

 

Map list:

Spoiler

Map 01 - "No Swimming"
Opening map, that introduces you to some of the wad enemies and mechanics. Be sure not to fall into the water, as the swimming is forbidden.

 

Map 02 - "Runners High"
Map with primary focus on rocketjumping and archvilejumping. Make your way through the city roofs!

 

Map 03 - "Baron Munchausen"
Discover the strange things that are going on in this factory and what lies beneath it. Will anyone believe the stories you will tell afterwards?

 

Map 04 - "Hot Air Skyway"
Can you survive this deadly track? Maybe you can, but will you be fast enough?

 

Map 05 - "My Orchid Garden"
Credits map. It has a tiny bit of gameplay though, how many kills will you be able to get?

 

Map 06 - "The End"

Secret credits map. Find a way to exit Map 05 to get there.

 

 

Midi list:

Spoiler

Map 01 - River by stewboy
Map 02 - Cold Wires by stewboy
Map 03 - Torque by Jimmy
Map 04 - Ocean from the game Vectorman. Midi is taken from Stardate 20x7 Map 31.
Map 05 - Mad World by Gary Jules

Map 06 - Sonata in B minor (K 27) by Domenico Scarlatti
Title screen - Nocturne in F minor Op.55 No.1 by Frederic Chopin
Intermission screen - For the Damaged Coda (shortened version) by Blonde Redhead

 

Other resources used:

Spoiler

Textures - OTEX by ukiro, with a few modified by me for signs and texts.
Tree sprites are taken from Supercharge mod (v2.9).
Colormap for invulnerability sphere is taken from Thelokk's "The Box of a Thousand Demons".
Interpic is a painting "Yellow-Red-Blue" by Wassily Kandinsky.
Titlepic is a painting "Several Circles" by Wassily Kandinsky.

 

Special thanks to all the awesome people who has playtested the wad before this release, gave their criticism and made invaluable suggestions: @Maribo, @Billa, @Meowgi, @4shockblast and also to all the awesome people in Jimmy's mapping discord The Entryway for helping me out with my mapping questions.

More screenshots:

Spoiler

 

 

Please enjoy :)

Edited September 1, 2022 by Ravendesk : idgames release

[Meowgi]

Congrats on the release! Looking forward to playing this again with some of the changes you've implemented.

[4shockblast]

I give this wad the Dogefish seal of approval. 

[Jinxie]

Platforming wads: making the world better one wad at a time! :D

[Billa]

Glad to see this released, what a refreshing and fun set of maps! I didn't realise the difficulty levels actually modified the level geometry. Very cool detail.

[Gregor]

So is this made with mouselook and jumping in mind? You can't see much of the mountains in the sky texture in map01 if you play with software rendering as OpenGL distorts the sky texture quite a bit, so i assume it's supposed to be played with OpenGL.

[Ravendesk]

7 minutes ago, Gregor said:

So is this made with mouselook and jumping in mind? You can't see much of the mountains in the sky texture in map01 if you play with software rendering as OpenGL distorts the sky texture quite a bit, so i assume it's supposed to be played with OpenGL.

Oh, I'm sorry, forgot to mention that.

 

Mouselook, jumping and crouching should be disabled for the best experience.

Visuals were designed with software rendering in mind, but I don't think there is anything that breaks with OpenGL renderer.

 

Not seeing mountains is a bit unfortunate but is not critical for the map appearance I was aiming for.

 

I have updated OP to mention this.

[Gregor]

30 minutes ago, Ravendesk said:

Not seeing mountains is a bit unfortunate but is not critical for the map appearance I was aiming for.

Well, i personally think the mountains do contribute a lot to the atmosphere of the map. Feels much more alive and cosy. Maybe you could adjust the position of the sky texture a little to compensate for the distortion? Kinda of a waste of the texture if you can only see the very top in software.

 

NOTE: the distortion only happens when you activate mouselook with OpenGL as it bends the sky accordingly to create a skybox effect.

 

Edited August 10, 2022 by Gregor

[Ravendesk]

19 minutes ago, Gregor said:

Well, i personally think the mountains do contribute a lot to the atmosphere of the map. Feels much more alive and cosy. Maybe you could adjust the position of the sky texture a little to compensate for the distortion? Kinda of a waste of the texture if you can only see the very top in software.

 

I never noticed it before you mentioned it, but they really do :) I'll look into it before RC2 update.

Edited August 10, 2022 by Ravendesk

[Thelokk]

Platforming, neat. Screenshots look dope too. Right into my to-play list! Hopefully I won't suffer too much.

 

Edit: @Ravendesk will try to contribute with more substantial commentary once I graduate from HNTR to HMP (spoile: wad is a blast, both metaphorically and literally), for now

 

Spoiler

most doors, especially in MAP03, seem to have that lower unpegged thing where the side of the wall goes up with the door itself. Stylistic choice or oversight?

 

Edited August 10, 2022 by Thelokk

[Ravendesk]

49 minutes ago, Thelokk said:

for now

 

  Hide contents

most doors, especially in MAP03, seem to have that lower unpegged thing where the side of the wall goes up with the door itself. Stylistic choice or oversight?

 

Might be an oversight, thanks for mentioning, added it to my to-check list.

[Ravendesk]

RC2 update is ready.

 

Changelog:

1. Added NoMo support. Now each map is beatable with "-nomonsters" flag. On NoMo all the platforming is the same as on UV.

Big fights in Map 02 and Map 03 can be skipped on NoMo.

Turret monsters are closed in Map 01 and Map 04 on NoMo.

Secrets in Map 02 and Map 03 can be obtained on NoMo by blowing up all barrels instead of killing all imps. Secret in Map 01 is always accessible on NoMo.

2. Adjusted the sky offset in Map 01, so the tips of the mountains can be seen. Now it looks like this (with software and no mouselook):

Spoiler

3. Fixed lightning sequence in colored platforms room in Map 03.

4. Fixed textures and unpegged flags for doors in Map 03.

5.

Spoiler

Added an "exit" sign near the exit switch in Map 03, as you can't see it's color due to invuln.

6. Fixed a few wrong textures in Map 02.

 

Download link for RC2: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1jZmN5LxnFgWI0Y8H40JGwB_Vru8XXx11/view?usp=sharing

 

I have updated OP with the new download link and the changelog.

 

Thanks to everyone for the feedback given on RC1!

[Ravendesk]

I have stumbled upon a way to make Map 04 work in GZDoom by accident. So now the wad includes a ZScript that manually adjusts the conveyor linedef lengths in GZDoom to slow conveyors down and make it playable. Many thanks to @dac for mentioning it in discord and briefly explaining it to me.

 

GZDoom still treats conveyor belts quite differently, especially the way you can control your speed on them, so playing Map 04 in GZ is quite a different experience, and you need to press W to speed up or press S to slow down at times, but it's interesting in its own way. I still recommend using dsda-doom for the intended experience though.

 

This change along with a small sky offset tweak for Map 03 is included in RC3. Link in the OP is also updated.

 

Download link for RC3: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1YQXw2kifa768ct9vWkHaebCQTESMd-f_/view?usp=sharing

[Philnemba]

Cute little platforming puzzle map set you have there even though Maps 2 & 4 weren't my cup of tea and that lave pit section with Cyberdemons was a neat trick in Map 3 :)

[Ravendesk]

Updated 4pfl to RC4 version. Hopefully this is the last update. I will upload it on idgames in a few days if no more bugs are found.

 

Changelog:

1. Made it possible to exit Map 05 and added a secret credits level in Map 06 slot.

2. Fixed a possible cheese in a secret area of Map 02.

3. Fixed bug with NoMo in Map 03.

4. Fixed a possible cheese on lower difficulties in Map 03 - just so that players won't be confused by thinking this is the intended progression.

 

As usual I have updated OP with the new download link and the changelog.

 

Download RC4 here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1v0RRG9wOZSxOyZNp0Iiq30IunIMmi69R/view?usp=sharing

[Ravendesk]

Four Perfectly Fine Lemons is now on idgames! No changes from RC4.

 

Download link: https://www.doomworld.com/idgames/levels/doom2/Ports/0-9/4pfl

 

Enjoy!

[Arsinikk]

I played this on stream and I actually quite enjoyed it! Despite my many deaths and save scumming on UV. I would say this definitely isn't the kind of Doom stuff I usually play, but I really liked the puzzle aspect of it.
 

Spoiler

 

- I couldn't for the life of me, figure out how to kill the last imp on MAP03.

- I was able to get through the first 3 maps pretty well, but map04 just simply was too difficult from me (I ended up kinda TASing, just to see how the level played).

- I liked MAP05, but I couldn't figure out a good strat to get far enough to exit the map to MAP06.

 

 

You can watch the video here:

 

https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1577976718?t=1h2m20s

 

Edited August 31, 2022 by Arsinikk

[Ravendesk]

2 hours ago, Arsinikk said:

I played this on stream and I actually quite enjoyed it! Despite my many deaths and save scumming on UV. I would say this definitely isn't the kind of Doom stuff I usually play, but I really liked the puzzle aspect of it.
 

  Reveal hidden contents

 

- I couldn't for the life of me, figure out how to kill the last imp on MAP03.

- I was able to get through the first 3 maps pretty well, but map04 just simply was too difficult from me (I ended up kinda TASing, just to see how the level played).

- I liked MAP05, but I couldn't figure out a good strat to get far enough to exit the map to MAP06.

 

 

 

Hey, glad you enjoyed it! Watched the vod, that was fun. 

 

Really good job on Map 02, these jumps are not easy and you got them really fast. Especially the third jump of the map, that AVJ into RJ, nicely done!

 

Now regarding the spoilers part:

Spoiler

1. To kill the imp in map 03 you are supposed to shoot a rocket from the starting side through these black-yellow sights, then take a teleporter and that rocket will explode right into your back propelling you forward to where the imp is :) 

 

Actually a bit more regarding map 03.

 

That colored platforms puzzle requires no movement skills whatsoever, it's a pure puzzle thing. When you step on a platform of a certain color, all platforms with that color lower. So you just need to find a path with all the unique colors and move freely through it :) When you get to any row, scrollers for the next row stop, so you just need to take it slow. But so far pretty much everyone I saw playing this, has hacked this puzzle one way or another, lol.

 

Also, regarding the cyber fight in Map 03 - doing it pacifist is crazy xd, I could never do it pacifist even with saves lol.

These cybers are actually not the usual ones, they have a very low mass. So you can just shoot them with rockets and push them into the lava. Gave you 100 rockets for that! So it may be even more like Fortnite than you originally thought :)

 

2. Yeah, Map 04 requires learning on UV - switching to HMP or even HNTR for the blind run might have helped there - the lower difficulties are much more forgiving in this map. But good job on finding the shortcut right away!

 

3. You actually got pretty close, you do really have to escape to the side right away. But then just an SR50 is not enough, you are supposed to wallrun :) This will give you enough speed to get to the opposite wall (well, not you, your corpse rather). Actually, SR50 wallrun will make it even more consistent.