[Now on idgames!] Deadliest Dem(o(li)ti)on - the most rocketful vanilla mod

[Scypek2]

 

Hell's not an easy place to live in. Unless you're a Cyberdemon! Or so it would seem. You've been having an awful time lately. It all started with a humiliating defeat at the hands of a soldier who baited you into getting stuck in a doorway with a lost soul gnawing at your ass. As if that wasn't enough, upon being brought back to life you found yourself in a measly human form. It seemed your infernal overseer was deeply displeased with your performance and decided you must learn to shoot smarter, not harder...

 

Deprived of your favorite toy, you're ordained to go out there with nothing but a handgun and fifty bullets as your starting equipment. Well... that just won't do.
 

Spoiler

 

 

 

 

Deadliest Dem(o(li)ti)on is my NaNoWADMo 2022 project - a 11-map vanilla mod loosely inspired by @Soundblock's Cabal series, with numerous dehacked additions, perhaps the most unusual one being apparent from the very start. Despite aiming for 11 levels, I didn't manage to complete it in a month... but I got close enough, and I plan to release the full version this year. here it is.

 

Download it from /IDGAMES here!

Edited April 3, 2023 by Scypek2

[Shepardus]

Any excuse for rocket-centric combat is fine in my book, but yours happens to be a particularly good one. Pressing 2 for rocket launcher took some getting used to, but it's a small price to pay for having the weapon available from the start. Whacking monsters with berserked cyber-fist is as satisfying as it ought to be.

 

I enjoyed playing the first map; will have to save the other two for another day, but I look forward to those and the full version!

[LadyMistDragon]

OMG, this is hilarious!! "How about Nooooo?" EXACTLY. Fuck the pistol and fuck anyone who tries to make you play with it. And this combat is truly something else. Delightfully sadistic! Some strange layout choices too.

[Scypek2]

The new slot is certainly possible to get used to - after all the playtesting I've done, the bigger problem I'm having right now is playing other mapsets and accidentally switching to the pistol when I want to blow things up! It's also less problematic than other potential weapon switchups - since the pistol never really gets selected automatically, I didn't have to worry about ammo types or the player blowing themselves up.

 

Before I had the bright idea of using the rocket launcher as a melee weapon, I was thinking of the protagonist picking up a pistol and then just throwing it at a rocket launcher wielding zombie to obtain an upgrade. I might use that in a launch trailer for the final thing.

[Shepardus]

Played a bit more, and found a missing texture in MAP02 (after pressing the set of face switches):

Same on the other side of this area.

 

Also, there's an ambush at the beginning of MAP02 that triggers on HNTR and HMP but not on UV.

[Scypek2]

Can't believe I missed that. Thanks!

 

Which ambush do you mean? There's a few difficulty-flagged teleport destinations, but higher skills should have more of them.

[Shepardus]

50 minutes ago, Scypek2 said:

Which ambush do you mean? There's a few difficulty-flagged teleport destinations, but higher skills should have more of them.

The sectors that lower when you reach the top of the stairs at the beginning (sectors 14 and 16). I think the pain elementals flagged for UV (things 210 and 211) are preventing them from lowering.

[Scypek2]

Thanks for the feedback! It seems they somehow got shifted two pixels south at some point in editing... I'll be sure to run this project by some playtesters before the full release. I was just itching to release something soon after October.

 

Currently, I've finished 7 out of 11 maps! MAP04 is gonna be pretty visually distinctive.

[Scypek2]

And now... I've finished all of the maps! All that's left is playtesting. Let me know if you'd like to try out the pre-release version!

 

Here's some more screenshots...

Spoiler

 

[Chainie]

Fifth screenshot reminds me one of Soundblock maps. 

[Scypek2]

That's right! How about the third one? Does it look recognizable at all?

[thelamp]

A bit weird getting used to pressing 2 for the rocket launcher, but I'm excited to see what the other weapon slots have become! Intense rocket slinging action in the first map and I can only imagine it'll be more intense as it goes on

 

 

[thelamp]

 

 

[Scypek2]

First pressing 2 for the rocket launcher, now the damaging water... Deadliest Demolition may be tricky to play with several normal levels inbetween each map! Thankfully, I'm pretty sure there aren't any additional counterintuitive things to keep track of.

[thelamp]

 

[Fernito]

Fun stuff! :) Here's my playthrough of map01 with some written commentary. I'll keep playing the rest of the maps and upload my playthroughs as I find the time :)

 

 

[Scypek2]

Thank you for the video! Very interesting, and a very different playstyle from the Lamp. I saw something weird at 6:46... BLODRIP should be a custom animated texture! Do you have any minor mods autoloaded? I've also found some more obvious problems with my map, such as the partially raising floor near the end which I've fixed already, but apparently it unfixed itself.

 

I wonder who's gonna the first to figure out the way of accessing the spider boss's stash of goodies...

Edited February 20, 2023 by Scypek2

[thelamp]

Here's map04! This was a long one

 

[Fernito]

10 hours ago, Scypek2 said:

I saw something weird at 6:64... BLODRIP should be a custom animated texture! Do you have any minor mods autoloaded? 

I think there's a typo in the timestamp so I'm not sure what time you're referring to, but in any case, I wasn't using any additional mods. I played on GZDoom with compatibility mode "Doom strict".

 

Quote

I wonder who's gonna the first to figure out the way of accessing the spider boss's stash of goodies...

Oh, so it is accessible after all! I thought it was only some sort of teaser :P I'll have to come back and check :P

[Kyka]

I love the rocket slap animation! It makes the rocket launcher look like it is made of rubber.

[Fernito]

3 minutes ago, Kyka said:

I love the rocket slap animation! It makes the rocket launcher look like it is made of rubber.

Yeah! And the smacking sound is so satisfactory xD

[Scypek2]

6 hours ago, Fernito said:

I think there's a typo in the timestamp so I'm not sure what time you're referring to, but in any case, I wasn't using any additional mods. I played on GZDoom with compatibility mode "Doom strict".

 

Oh, so it is accessible after all! I thought it was only some sort of teaser :P I'll have to come back and check :P

 

Oh yeah, it's 6:46. That's very weird then... maybe it's a new GZDoom bug, then? I imagine it's not too common nowadays to replace patches without replacing textures (with the exception of skies, maybe) so it could've gone unnoticed.

[Fernito]

Just finished map02, great stuff! Died a couple of times but was very fun to play. Took the time to find all secrets, the ones involving puzzles were super rewarding to figure out. Also, very cool vanilla trickery everywhere! Good job! :D

 

Here's my playthrough (it's uploading, should be available in one hour or so):

 

PS: I dunno if it was an intentional reference, but the last part of the plasma secret reminded of this :P

Spoiler

 

 

Edited February 21, 2023 by Fernito

[Scypek2]

I see the issue! You're playing the 3-level demo, which has a few errors that got fixed later. It also explains the lack of the new animated texture - it's only prominent starting from map04, so I might have removed it despite it being present on map01 in a minuscule way.

 

I've only shared the full 11-level pre-release on NaNoWADMo discord (and with a couple of playtesters I reached out to), but I might as well share it here too. Give this one a go to play map04 and beyond! DEMOLIT_v0.2.zip

 

There's not a ton of bugfixes you missed out on, thankfully. On MAP02, it was just the weird teleporters at the start and the second pain elemental not waking up when you attack the first one, plus the hom at the lowering gargoyle lifts. Also, the aftermath of the cyberdemon is way harsher in the early version, so I'm glad you managed it well enough regardless.

 

Anyway, both you and Lamp are validating my decision to seek playtesters by doing stuff I never thought of! This time around, you did a great job neutralizing the mixed monster ambush at the beginning with infighting. Jumping into the water to maneuver away from mancubi and stumbling backwards into a secret put a unique spin on things, too! And of course, you've been a thorough secret hunter. Maybe even too thorough, as a few of the optional map elements got you confused! There was the teleporter out of the short watery pathway, which you raised up before even getting to it, by opening the double non-BFG secret, which now offers no material reward but skips having to press a couple of switches later on. Then there were two switches that opened the side rooms in the baron and revenant arena, but I later decided to just make the marble faces openable directly.

Edited February 21, 2023 by Scypek2

[Fernito]

2 hours ago, Scypek2 said:

I see the issue! You're playing the 3-level demo, which has a few errors that got fixed later. It also explains the lack of the new animated texture - it's only prominent starting from map04, so I might have removed it despite it being present on map01 in a minuscule way.

Makes sense! I had the feeling I might have been playing an older version, I even downloaded it again today before playing just to be sure, but the link still had the old version when I did.

 

Quote

I've only shared the full 11-level pre-release on NaNoWADMo discord (and with a couple of playtesters I reached out to), but I might as well share it here too. Give this one a go to play map04 and beyond! DEMOLIT_v0.2.zip

Great! I'll continue playing this version.

 

Quote

  Anyway, both you and Lamp are validating my decision to seek playtesters by doing stuff I never thought of! This time around, you did a great job neutralizing the mixed monster ambush at the beginning with infighting. Jumping into the water to maneuver away from mancubi and stumbling backwards into a secret put a unique spin on things, too! And of course, you've been a thorough secret hunter. Maybe even too thorough, as a few of the optional map elements got you confused! There was the teleporter out of the short watery pathway, which you raised up before even getting to it, by opening the double non-BFG secret, which now offers no material reward but skips having to press a couple of switches later on. Then there were two switches that opened the side rooms in the baron and revenant arena, but I later decided to just make the marble faces openable directly.

I'm glad the playtesting has proven to be useful! I've had a lot of fun with this wad so far, I'll be looking forward to playing the next maps :D

[Fernito]

Finished Map03, another great map! I really like the new monsters, and the fights are very interesting and creative. Many times during my playthrough I had the feeling I had no idea what I was doing :P (but not in a bad way, it was very entertaining to figure out how the progression works).

 

I found all secrets, but sadly only after I had killed everything :P That BFG would have definitely come in handy. Video is uploading.

 

 

[thelamp]

Another action packed level! Very punishing but manageable with saves

 

 

[mmjp08]

Maybe I'm being intellectually outpaced, but can I get a hint for this secret? Based on what I can tell in the editor, none of the switches effects actually differ beyond the 3 triplets but nothing seems to happen when I press them edit:  -- got it. no clue how that works in editor but...I figured it out

[Fernito]

Found out how the get the secret stash in Map01 :D I recorded a video of me finding it out, but I don't know if I should post it here. I don't wanna spoil it for the rest.

[Fernito]

I started playing Map04. My initial report: roughly one hour in and I've lost track of how many blue keys I've picked up :P I've found 7/12 secrets so far, but I'm not stopping there, I wanna try to 100% it (I definitely wanna grab that weird looking shotgun). I have the impression that I broke some stuff (like activating a switch by shooting at it with the SSG in an "illegal" angle), but I'm not sure. Oh, and the double plasma guns are SICK! 

 

I had to stop because I've got work to do, but I'll try to resume my playthrough asap. Here's the first part (uploading, should be up in 2 hours or so):