Profane Promiseland RC1 Release.

[Bdubzzz]

The history/lore behind the map quoted from ELMLE:

"Profane Promiseland is a massive slaughtermap inspired by holyhell and okuplok.

 

I made the layout for this map back in 2018, a couple people played it and Bdubzzz made a remix version with more difficult fights. Then the project kinda went dormant until early 2022 when dubzzz asked me about it. So I started doing some rebalancing, then Insane_Gazebo got involved to do detailing for dubzzz version of the map. Then I started detailing my version which led to me rebalancing and reworking fights even more.

 

So now we have the Dubzebo version and the Classic version in two separate wads, both included in this release."

 

Insane_Gazebo comments: Best monster closet teleporter design I have ever seen.

 

Map format: Complevel 9/Boom

Recommended ports: DSDA-Doom/PrBoom+.. GZdoom wont be able to run it at a reasonable frame rate from what I experienced.

Midi Credits:

Spoiler

ProfanePromiseland.wad
Title: "Central Park" from The Last Ninja 2 
Map 01: 2012 (ZDCMP2 Remix) by Jimmy

ProfanePromiselandClassic.wad
Title: Body Harvest - Calm by Yves Spierts
Map 01: Nightmare Creatures - Stage 1 by Meezo

Playtesters: Bdubzzz, NoReason, Nevanos, StxVile, ELMLE, MasterMedi, TheLoneliness, I believe there was older playtesters back from like 2018 but I'm not exactly sure who.

Special thanks to Bemused for teaching me how to make a Reject table.

 

 

Estimated Real time for completion of the map: 6 to 12 hours depending on how much you save, which version you play and your skill level. :^)

Difficulty settings? No... if you want an easier time play the classic version.

 

Download links:

Original beta release: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1MGSL6VTgZI7E3xMjm8IJjCBEd5SRWKCv/view?usp=sharing

Updated RC1: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ErV10FajF30XK-3Zx3M-L8_L4evSO5wC/view?usp=share_link

 

Some Screenshots/comparisons of versions from Insane_Gazebo: (The Classic version screenshots may be a bit outdated since ELMLE has added detailing since these were taken. ;p )

 

Well hopefully nothing got seriously broken during final compilation but yeah as you can imagine trying to test this for every little edit is a bit extreme.

Edited February 24, 2023 by Bdubzzz : RC1 update for Dubzzz/Gazebo version

[Thelokk]

Well, it sure was a small step from coffee break maps to Thanksgiving dinner maps.

Looking forward to playing this one... or gazing at it in UDB, more likely. 

 

EDIT: even DSDA is choking in a few spots... welp.

Edited September 26, 2022 by Thelokk

[Bdubzzz]

yeah disabling rewind does help a little bit with lag.

 

Change this option to 0

[elmle]

Have fun everybody :)

[Shepardus]

4 hours ago, Bdubzzz said:

Title: Okuplok map theme..idk what its called ill find out before idgames release

"Central Park" from The Last Ninja 2 (see also: Alien Vendetta MAP24)

 

Edit - Some initial reports:

In the non-classic version, if you miss these stairs and jump down into the earlier area, you seem to become softlocked. (In the classic version, the door back to this area opens up, but in the non-classic version, it doesn't.)

Spoiler

Also, despite the OP stating there's no difficulty settings, there are in fact some difficulty changes in the non-classic version. ITYTD/HNTR is truly a sight to behold.

Edited September 26, 2022 by Shepardus

[Bdubzzz]

1 hour ago, Shepardus said:

Also, despite the OP stating there's no difficulty settings, there are in fact some difficulty changes in the non-classic version. ITYTD/HNTR is truly a sight to behold.

Ah yes, HNTR was made for when the map had an infinite BFG, which you only got for the last couple fights but later on I decided to remove it cause with no push back on monsters it kinda sucks. Anyway Without the infinite BFG I’m not sure if HNTR is possible in it’s current state but I probably should change that before final release :p

[Insane_Gazebo]

I'm fairly sure detailing this glorious abomination took at least 6 months off my life.

Look forward to people suffering through it. :)

[Dan87]

Excellent. I've been looking forward to this

[Kinetic]

ok i will play okuplok 2

[Jacek Bourne]

Interesting.

[DoomBerry]

What the f did I just download. I've played about two hours with the odd health cheat and I'm still at about 12% of monster kills!!!

 

[Shepardus]

Small texture oversight in the non-classic version where a surface still has the classic texture:

Spoiler

 

[SCF]

On 9/26/2022 at 11:44 AM, Shepardus said:

Edit - Some initial reports:

In the non-classic version, if you miss these stairs and jump down into the earlier area, you seem to become softlocked.

 

Came here to report the same thing. You don't even have to miss the stairs, I just went back down first to grab some ammo.

 

Anyway, good stuff so far. I'm only, uhh... 1/40th of the way through all the kills.

[cannonball]

You’re mad, you are all mad!!!

That is an impressive overall of the original map. Electronic hi-fives all around.

[Firedust]

40k monsters!!!!!!!

[Jinxie]

I've been itching to play this one ever since IG teased the visuals for it, so glad it's out!!! The map starts out great, the midi's top-notch, the visuals are impeccable and the combat is superb so far :D Will update after I've played through all of it

[SCF]

I figured I'd chronicle my journey through this monstrous map, encounter by encounter. These are first playthrough impressions so they're not going to be very refined. I don't know how many fights there will be in total, but the first 10 are here.

 

Spoiler

1. Opening

Looks scarier than it is, but it sets the tone for the map. Dealing with the archvile/zombieman crowd at the start is fun, but the fight does lose steam once they're dead and you have to deal with all the cacos/mancubi in the next room. There's not much that can hurt you if you just run circles around the rev cage.

 

2. BFG Bonanza

Very interesting fight. I didn't study the mechanics, but I'm assuming there's one group of cacos/pain elementals that can teleport to any of the four locations depending on which one has space? Makes clearing enemies a double-edged sword. This seemed like a fight that has multiple solutions. Definitely my favorite so far.

 

3. Chaingun Closets

Kind of a breather in between the action. Once you know what's coming it's pretty trivial to take out the archvile and deal with the chaingunners little by little.

 

4. Cybertrench

Not sure if there's a better way, but I ended up circling around the edges of the ditch to avoid the fire from the perched cybers, and letting infighting take care of the rest. Works pretty well and provides a good dynamic of having to keep moving back and forth but also dodge the HK/Baron projectiles coming straight at you.

 

5. Hell Knight Encirclement

Didn't really try to 'solve' this one since I had a lot of cells/health left over from last fight. First attempt I tried to stay in the center, avoiding projectiles and letting the pinkies soak damage, but it was kind of hard to see what's behind the fences. BFG-blasting my way through turned out to be much easier.

 

6. 'C' of Destruction

All right, this one I just didn't get. There's a huge number of revenants, and virtually no cover. The geometry of the walls makes it easy to get snagged when you're trying to shake off homing missiles. The only solution I was able to find was to quickly run to the end, BFGing the mancubi along the way, and hide inside the door frame. That little area is safe from the mass of revenants on the other side of the circle, and if you're fast enough there won't be enough missiles already chasing you to kill you. Then, after waiting a while to get all the revs to move towards you, there's just enough space to run to the switch and get back out. The hallway to the next area gives you an actual safe space, but it's still a tedious process to get rid of all the revenants (I guess you don't have to, but a few of them would always make their way around and bother me in the next fight). If there's a better way, I'd like to see it.

 

7. Stairway to Archviles

Weird one. Is this room just an obstacle to prevent you from escaping from the last fight early? Because if you take your time it's very easy to wake up some archviles and run back to the entrance, and from there they're pretty much harmless.

 

8. Demon Surprise Party

Some good old "I can't tell what's going on so I'm just going to hold the trigger" action. I'm sure there's a strategy beyond wiggling around trying not to get hit, but I made it past before I found it.

 

9. Cacophony

This one is a nightmare. Caco corpses piling up on the elevated floors blocking your sight, knowing a lost soul might fly into your rocket at any moment. It didn't take me as much time as I was expecting, but I'm not sure if that was just luck and/or entering the room with 600 cells. Altogether it was just enough ammo to make space for the rocket launcher, and then switch back to the BFG once I got to the pain elementals. I don't know what you'd do if you had to make do with just the cells inside the room (unless you always get 600 cells before entering, I don't remember). One minor annoyance was that with the limited space you have it's very easy to grab the megaspheres unintentionally.

 

10. Back outside, now with more revenants

This felt like one of those fights where the first 20 seconds are dangerous, but after that (once you can access all the goodies) it's just a long cleanup process where you shouldn't die but can easily catch a stray rocket. I try to avoid saving mid-fight, but I made an exception here because it wasn't very fun. I would keep dying randomly as I was running around, then get more impatient and die more as a result. Infighting should help in theory, but most of the revenants just end up uselessly dancing around the pillars and getting in your way. I don't know if I'll regret this later but I ultimately just moved on to the next area as soon as I could.

 

 

[RN_Jesus]

I will go deep into learning this . Holy Hell thats Spicy 

 

[CblBOPOTKA]

Played original map (tried new version, but it makes my calculator cry). Interesting varied fights, especially penultimate one:

Spoiler

- you need to choose right place on that labyrinth arena so that you don't get strangled by another wave of monsters
- my first trial ended right in the catacombs with me without any more ammo
- but anyway final fight is just epic

What i really like in Elmle map is that every fight has some conception, solving it is the greatest pleasure

[SCF]

Finished parts 11-20. After 90 minutes of playtime (excluding reloads), I'm now... 12.5% of the way through the total kill count.

 

Spoiler

11. That Hallway With Two Cybers At The End And There's Also A Row Of Mancubi

When I think about a Doom fight, I try to think about what the particular challenge is that it poses. Obviously, dodging rockets in front of you and fireballs from the side is very difficult. But you don't really have to, since you can leave at any time. And the alternative solutions take away the challenge entirely. You can pop out of cover, fire a few rockets at the mancubi, go back into hiding, and repeat. Simple, but tedious to the point that I didn't want to do it. The better option was getting one of the mancs to hit the cyber and just leave for a while while they all infight.

 

12. Wave After Wave After Wave

I enjoyed this fight. It's a little rough the first time around, because you have no idea how many waves are still left. Also, even though there are five megaspheres in total, the three in the main area quickly become hidden underneath piles of corpses. I had to restart the whole fight because I wasted two megaspheres by accidentally running over them and then had no health left at the end. I didn't even realize there was another one in the center until that happened. I also noticed you can abuse the toxic pit a little bit to lure enemies to one side and then teleport to the other to buy some space, but it seems balanced enough to just be another tool at your disposal, rather than an exploit.

 

13. Fancy Dining - Appetizer

Just the initial cleanup before starting the real fight. Ammo seemed pretty tight here, but in retrospect I guess you can probably rush for the stash near the switch.

 

14. Fancy Dining - Main Course

Found a pretty effective strategy here after realizing that even when enemies start infiltrating the ammo room, you can easily escape by using the lift in the toxic pit. Rather than awkwardly dealing with enemies in a narrow corridor, one or two BFG blasts is usually enough to clear the lift and get out. This in turn allows you to wait in that room for longer to lure out more enemies. I did have some issues, mostly with my own inability to dodge simple projectiles, but also because sometimes the cybers and archviles would die by themselves and sometimes they'd all survive and come after me. Either way, I had a good time.

 

15. Unleash the Cacodemons

Well, that's one way to make use of all those leftover cyberdemons. All I had to do was initiate infighting and go hide at the doorway to the BFG room until everything was dead.

 

By the way, at the lift to the switch that opens the caco windows, the inner textures (when the lift goes down) look like they're old (vanilla doom) ones.

 

16. Opening the Gate

This is another one that felt more like filler. Probably the most harmless archvile of the map so far. The mountain of corpses that had been piling up in the starting area made it near-impossible to fight properly there. When I went back to the dining room area for health/ammo, I noticed the windows that overlook the main area make it very easy to initiate infighting with the cybers. Speaking of which, it's not a big deal, but the pillars that lower to block your escape for fight #12 never raise back up, so every ammo trip meant losing at least 20% from the damaging floor. It's also pretty disorienting because it's hard to see, you just go down the stairs and suddenly drop down into acid.

 

17. Red Rock Area, First Wave

Just the enemies that appear when you cross the lava river. There's a safe spot where none of them can hit you, behind the white rock pillar in the corner next to the canyon (to the right from the entrance). You can just sit there and let them kill each other. But even without that, you can pretty easily run in circles as long as you don't catch a stray rocket.

 

18. Red Rock Area 2, Now With 100% More Cacos and Hell Knights

This was a tough one. I struggled for a while to find a path that wouldn't get me cornered. Putting all the medkits in the center where they'd be blocked by the mancubi was pretty cruel. I find that I generally enjoy these kinds of fights, where you have to herd the enemies and carve out space for yourself.

 

19. Climbing the Mountain

Not much to say here, just a short break.

 

20. Party in the Tunnels and Everyone's Invited

This one took me a while, mainly because of the cyberdemons at the end. Most of them survive, and dealing with them within those narrow tunnels was a pain, even when there wasn't another one trying to sneak up on you from the other side. Having to retry it a few dozen times, the randomness was a little annoying. Sometimes you get 10 archviles teleporting in right at the start, sometimes they arrive late when there's too much meat to get to them. I noticed that the tunnels themselves were well designed, winding just enough that you can always duck for cover when an archvile targets you. I assume the holes in the walls were intentionally there to give you vision but block attacks, which was nice.

[SCF]

I was contuining to write notes about fights until I pressed ctrl-z to correct an error and somehow that made the form eat my entire post, so never mind that. I'm far from finished still, but I did want to mention two things:

 

Spoiler

In the fight in the concrete room after the blue key door, you can exploit the entrance door and do the "repeatedly open and close quickly" thing to get everything infighting without any risk to yourself. Completely trivialized it.

 

The revenant corridor is insane. I had to break my rule not to save mid-fight beceause I wasn't making any progress. The first ~30s after the invuln were an absolute nightmare. Either there's something big I'm missing, or it's way harder than anything else so far.

 

 

 

 

[phoo]

On 9/26/2022 at 2:06 AM, Bdubzzz said:

inspired by holyhell and okuplok.

Uh oh, this is gonna be brutal.

[Shepardus]

Ran through both versions of the map with -nomonsters. I think I got softlocked in the classic version by returning to this area after getting the yellow key:

Spoiler

Edit: Never mind, I didn't realize the bars locking you into the area after this can be opened from outside, allowing you to run through that section again.

Edited October 3, 2022 by Shepardus

[Bdubzzz]

On 10/1/2022 at 6:28 PM, SCF said:

Spoiler

The revenant corridor is insane. I had to break my rule not to save mid-fight beceause I wasn't making any progress. The first ~30s after the invuln were an absolute nightmare. Either there's something big I'm missing, or it's way harder than anything else so far.

 

Spoiler

Yeah it's a bit of a meme throwback fight from oku.. funny enough you only get 1 megasphere in the oku version and yet in this version with 1 invuln and 2 megas to refill health it is still quite hard. You likely aren't missing anything though, it is arguably on the luck-based side of encounters but then again from the playtesters the better players got through a lot quicker ( saveless ) so it's not all luck there. Just obviously with any encounter with lots of Revs you can get a bit screwed on damage rolls. Might look at it again as far as making it more consistent though.

 

[SCF]

19 minutes ago, Bdubzzz said:

  Hide contents

Yeah it's a bit of a meme throwback fight from oku.. funny enough you only get 1 megasphere in the oku version and yet in this version with 1 invuln and 2 megas to refill health it is still quite hard. You likely aren't missing anything though, it is arguably on the luck-based side of encounters but then again from the playtesters the better players got through a lot quicker ( saveless ) so it's not all luck there. Just obviously with any encounter with lots of Revs you can get a bit screwed on damage rolls. Might look at it again as far as making it more consistent though.

 

 

Oh, I'm sure it's just beyond my skill level, but I mentioned it because it seemed like a huge difficulty spike to me compared to everything before it (and after, so far).

 

By the way, is it intentional that you can fall through the cracks here and get stuck? The place is littered with corpses so it's almost impossible to see. It's fine when you're running, but it happens pretty easily if you stop moving. Killed me twice and it was pretty annoying.

Spoiler

 

[Flower_XD]

6 hours ago, SCF said:

By the way, is it intentional that you can fall through the cracks here and get stuck? The place is littered with corpses so it's almost impossible to see. It's fine when you're running, but it happens pretty easily if you stop moving. Killed me twice and it was pretty annoying.

  Hide contents

 

Same happened to me. It was PrBoom+

[Bdubzzz]

Heh not really intentional, just something none of the testers encountered iirc but ya gonna make it not possible to fall in to those.

[SCF]

Took a break for a month before tackling the final fight, and wow, it's insane. There were a few fights throughout the map where I had to use a mid-fight save to get through it, but for the final fight I needed about... a dozen. Looking forward to seeing a playthrough from someone better than me so I can see what strategies I missed.

 

I took a look at the secret fight as wel, but... yeah, I don't think I have the patience to grind out that one.

 

Overall, this map is an amazing achievement. Some great fights in there, and superb detailing for a map of this size. Truly epic.

 

Couple of other comments/observations:

 

Spoiler

Never found a good solution for the second last fight. The way enemies close in on you from all sides is expertly set up and I spent a lot of time trying to find a reliable movement pattern. Eventually found one that let me hit all switches in succession and leave early, which didn't feel right but it worked.

 

One of the most annoying parts of the final fight was remembering which megaspheres I already picked up. You don't get much of time on each 'pass' with the unending tide of pinkies.

 

There has to be a better way to grab those megaspheres than "quickly dart in and out, and pray the cybers inside the little room don't immediately fire at you".

 

The actual most annoying part was that on the two side platforms there's these alcoves you can hide inside to avoid projectiles, but very often I'd take blast damage from a cyber rocket hitting the opposite side. I assume that's a doom engine bug where some explosions aren't properly blocked by the wall.

 

Is there no way to go back to the earlier parts of the map after the final fight? Since I left the previous fight early, there were still a lot enemies left in the area.

 

If you don't do the secret fight, the SS guy at the end is stuck in the floor but still wakes up/blocks you, which is kinda awkward.

 

[Dan87]

Finally got around to tackling this beast over the course of the last few days. Fantastic map - incredible work by all 3 of you.

 

I wasn't the biggest fan of some of the filler fights (mostly the stuff where you aren't locked in and are chipping away at perched enemies) - but that's personal preference, and I guess it's to be expected given the maps this is playing tribute to :)

 

However all of the major set piece encounters were excellent. My favorites were these 4:
 

Spoiler

 

(the rev/manc part)

 

 

 

 

 

 

I noticed a few stuck monsters here and there, but I suppose that's not surprising with how many you've crammed in. The most noticeable were the HKs along the north/south walls here:

 

Spoiler

 

The only major complaint I have is in regards to these optional areas just prior to the non-secret finale:

 

Spoiler

 

I missed the opening to the north/south stairs when I came into the room and activated the main fight, which as far as I can tell permanently seals them in. Had to idclip back after the secret fight in order to get 100% kills. Maybe worth forcing the player up there before the main fight?

 

Oh and the shoot switch that activates the non-secret finale didn't register my shots half the time. I'm guessing this is some nodebuilder shenanigans given the size of the map? Not critical, but I thought I'd mention it.

[Bdubzzz]

Thanks every1 for the feedback so far, I will likely update the map early next year as a RC1 ( as the rest of this year is kinda busy irl and for doom).

 

regarding Dans's comments on the filler - fights.. I did think about removing most of those for more setpiece fights but I thought they also were kind of nice breaks from the harder fights ( and well ya need some grind for a holy hell tribute :p )

 

Planned Changelog so far:

Fix early softlock

change classic texture on TP (screenshot on dw)

tighten up cracks in the cliff area to prevent player from falling in

add a way back to the map after final fight

block off SS Nazi at the end

Possibly look in to a way of nerfing the final fight by making it easier to grab the megas (maybe can move them closer to the edges)

close off the cover spots on the pillars on the far sides of the final fight? They seem kinda pointless anyway

look in to fixing the stuck HKs on the stairs ( dw screenshot )

remove the final side areas before the final fight and add crushers for the sniper HKs ( they were part of the classic version area of this map but really are pointless in this version). 

Look at the fight before the normal finale and make the switches harder to rush. :^) 

"real" difficulty settings? Probably would just add more power ups and ammo for HMP. Also make HNTR actually possible? yeah maybe.

see if that final shoot switch can be improved to be 100% consistent ( nodebuilder shit )

add an actual interpic that doesn't say "finished Entryway"