30 Sectors: A Community Project for Boom (Limit Removing) (Closed)

[stochastic]

Here's some progress screenshots for Map 27. It will be titled "The Shrine of Mad Laughter". Went with a spooky, surreal bloody void hell map that's got plenty of slaughter-lite action.

 

Spoiler

 

Still lots of detailing, enemy encounter designs, balancing, and overall enhancements left to do, but it's coming together. Currently at 25 sectors, and I feel confident I should be able to implement the remaining work with those 5 remaining sectors. Should be ready for playtesting in the next week or so.

 

Edit: @Raith138 I'd like to claim Map 12 as well if that's okay.

Edited October 26, 2023 by stochastic

[Raith138]

I am planning on submitting one of the currently completed maps to the decino viewer submitted levels event. I don't think map 01 will be done in a time so please give suggestions.

 

@stochastic, if you can finish up map 27 that would be great because that looks really good.

(Also I reserved map 12).

Edited October 28, 2023 by Raith138

[SilverMiner]

I'd like to claim a slot. Any

[Matt Eldrydge]

Quick update on my end, I've been busy with other things but I should go back to mapping for this project next week.

[Djoga]

I am coming up with map design changes

[stochastic]

17 hours ago, Raith138 said:

 

@stochastic, if you can finish up map 27 that would be great because that looks really good.

(Also I reserved map 12).

 

Thanks! I think I'll be able to finish it up this week, so I'll start on 12 after that.

[Raith138]

2 hours ago, stochastic said:

 

Thanks! I think I'll be able to finish it up this week, so I'll start on 12 after that.

I just realized the deadline is December 1st on not November so I should be able to finish map 01 by then, I will submit what ever is the best map at the time.

[stochastic]

@Raith Here is my submission for Map 27. I'm pretty pleased with how it turned out. Though there are a few things I'm on the fence about with it - namely, a few death pits and a crusher. Usually not a fan of either, but I feel they kinda fit within the context of the map. If they're too frustrating though, they can go. Also, let me know about any ammo/health balancing.

 

Sto_30Sec_MAP27.zip

 

Map Title: The Shrine of Mad Laughter

Map Slot: Map 27

MIDI Used: "Baron's Province" by James "Jimmy" Paddock

Map Author: stochastic

Difficulties Implemented: All

Tested With: PrBoom-Plus 2.5.1.4, dsda-doom 0.26.2, GZDoom 4.6.1

 

 

Edited November 9, 2023 by stochastic : Ammo/health balancing

[Raith138]

Just to let everyone know. This project has kind of moved lower on my priority list because I am enjoying other games for now.

I will continue playtesting submissions and work on my map in the background but it is not my main priority.

Wanted to let everyone know.

 

[HEXWALKER]

That is all good, I've been slow on mapping this week anyways because a demoparty snuck up on me. Enjoy your other games :)

[Raith138]

18 hours ago, stochastic said:

@Raith Here is my submission for Map 27. I'm pretty pleased with how it turned out. Though there are a few things I'm on the fence about with it - namely, a few death pits and a crusher. Usually not a fan of either, but I feel they kinda fit within the context of the map. If they're too frustrating though, they can go. Also, let me know about any ammo/health balancing.

 

Sto_30Sec_MAP27.zip

 

Map Title: The Shrine of Mad Laughter

Map Slot: Map 27

MIDI Used: "Baron's Province" by James "Jimmy" Paddock

Map Author: stochastic

Difficulties Implemented: All

Tested With: PrBoom-Plus 2.5.1.4, dsda-doom 0.26.2, GZDoom 4.6.1

 

 

Have yet to beat it, it is really hard.

Loving the asthetic and gameplay though. Feels like you are capturing the feeling of maps like bastion of chaos with 30 sectors and only stock textures.

Will give more feedback when I beat it.

 

Btw, I found this weird bug where a corpse appears but only at a very specific angle and position.

[stochastic]

1 hour ago, Raith138 said:

Have yet to beat it, it is really hard.

Loving the asthetic and gameplay though. Feels like you are capturing the feeling of maps like bastion of chaos with 30 sectors and only stock textures.

Will give more feedback when I beat it.

Much appreciated! Wanted to convey a truly hellish experience.

 

Yeah, if the difficulty is too much, I could definitely stand to scrap an archvile or two. I wanted to make it challenging without bordering into slaughter territory. Went more for slaughter-lite (PL2 or Going Down) type action, but I'll be happy to adjust as needed :)

 

2 hours ago, Raith138 said:

Btw, I found this weird bug where a corpse appears but only at a very specific angle and position.

 

 

Fixed it and updated my submission. It was a "bloody mess" thing on the other side of the midtexture gate that was clipping through when oriented at certain angles. 

[Raith138]

It is looking like a decent map 30 so I may switch it to that slot if you are good with that?

Then the difficult would be more warranted.

[stochastic]

18 minutes ago, Raith138 said:

It is looking like a decent map 30 so I may switch it to that slot if you are good with that?

Then the difficult would be more warranted.

 

Yeah, definitely fine with that. Want me to adjust the map slot/MIDI name in the wad file or do you want to?

[stochastic]

Also, sorry for the double post but I've made a few texture alignment fixes - latest submission is in my post

[Doomy__Doom]

Small update - finally got around to fixing the Cyberdemon crushing issue for gzdoom. Updated version 30sec_m31_v3.zip

Original submission post also updated.

 

I see there is still no map32 claimed, so ping me at least a week before deadline if secret exit needs to be removed.

[AnArchaicApparatus]

Map Title: Tides Of The Banshee

Map Slot: Map 29*

MIDI used: ENIMAPOD : Requiem To Plastic Jesus Doll Autographed by Steve Reich From A Cereal Box

Map Creator: AnArchaicApparatus (Enimapod)

 

Edit note: I am still kinda open to making moar original midis if anyone wants. :V

 

Another edit note: *Just put into its corresponding spot in order, since the quantity of maps is much lesser now. I'd rather not put a concrete # since nobody knows who is or isn't going to actually finish their maps.

 

 

DOWNLOAD: 30 Sectors - AnArchaicApparatus (Enimapod) - MAP29 - Tides Of The Banshee.zip

 

Flavor text, background, rant, spoilers, etc:

Spoiler

As mentioned before, it's puzzlin' time. Obvs. I've been getting bored of straight-line rush-em Scythe-like community project quickie maps, so instead I thought it'd be fun to make something that's still mostly linear, but has some different branches at points, and uses the linearity to try and reinforce a kinda claustrophobia I guess, as well as focusing on a scenario-by-scenario basis. Blame Ribbiks for recommending the Odessa series in le Nirvana interview (is nice,) and blame Dobu Gabu Maru for teaching me better than to use Odessa alone as a Puzzle map design bible (Go play The Given, is very very bigly good.)

 

I also used a lot more sectors than for Map 09 and it's def a bit longer, so hopefully it fulfills your cravings Raith. :V

 

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Also, I been a bad dog, I peed on the Carpet, I made slaughter-based combat puzzle fights despite Super Nintendo Chalmers' directions, oops I knocked the vase over with my tail or whatever oh dearie oh whoopsies.

 

I was gonna have a no-monsters level, but then thought having some puzzle-ish and otherwise self-contained combat scenarios & swapping back and forth w' the more atmospheric/non-combat bits for contrast was more interesting/fitting for a late non-secret map, and having clods of jerkholes turns out to be a really good tool for incentivizing the player to strategize beyond bangbang shootshoot when used for that purpose.

 

There are only four combat scenarios here in total, which adds up to 162 enemies on UV, which is meant to contrast with the more, "hazard puzzle," and otherwise enemy-vacant puzzle stuff while also having a puzzle element instead of being, "Here's a bunch of guys and lots of ammo good luck lmao," or whatever, and I tried to make them able to be over quickly if you know what to do and aren't afraid to save as ya go through the level (again, the Casalis saved, you can too.) It's the penultimate map anyways, stochastics map is prolly more aggro than the fights in mine anyways (Writing this while playing it, is nice map but not really my kinda sauce.) Also, yes, Sundersundersunder, thee Gazibo hath gone mad and infected my skull ramen, FIN - though watching Spectere play through Stardate was also a bit of an inspiration for some fights, so uhh moar Ribbiks (on top of the invisible walls, though Dario did that in Map11 of Plutonia, blahblah.)

 

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The midi was something I had laying around for a while that was originally the first 3-5 minutes, minus the cool starting chords and the percussion stuff. The Steve Reich reference is because of the cool trippy phasing piano thing that goes throughout most of its duration.

 

Come out to show them, it's gonna rain.

 

On that note, the level name is a reference to both The Tides of Manaunaun and The Banshee by Henry Cowell.

 

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Anyways, rant over.

 

 

SLADE Sectors  overview:

Spoiler

 

 

Original bit about this map in its WIP stage:

On 10/19/2023 at 7:29 AM, AnArchaicApparatus said:

...

  Hide contents

'Had so much fun with the first map for this that I thought I'd try another idea that vividly sprung into my head.

 

I'm planning on this turning into MAP29.

 

So far, the idea I'm going with is having it be a simple, monster-free puzzle map to kinda let there be a lil extra atmospheric/otherwise buildup before whatever MAP30 ends up being in a more out-of-the-box way (and try some stuff for my own junk again.) Been playing some Odessa to get me, "in the zone," while also simultaneously getting ideas while filtering out the annoying things that are kinda just dumb and/or irritating and didn't age too good.

 

'Thinking about having it have a few straightforward lock-in paths w' unique variations on the puzzles for extra replayability, though I might have it be do-stuff-in-whatever-order instead, though the multiple tunnels visible w' the meat walls and overall feel kinda tell my gut to keep trudging the first.

  Hide contents

Maybe there can be a secret BFG and cells or something to reward anyone who felt like doing em all for weird fun. 

 

Gonna try and have hell features in there, but so far it's just cold steel and a bit of flesh.

 

Edited December 20, 2023 by AnArchaicApparatus : Added signature to map.

[stridertech]

still in dev with the map. making a 2nd version to improve on detail/textures and monster count/combat, including a cyberdemon fight. might release soon, is it ok to make this new update to my map?

[Surreily]

Hi, very sorry to not post anything for the last ~2 months, but real life happened. I'll get my map posted tonight.

[randomsounds01]

Just realized I am still in this, but I've got no ideas. Don't think I'll be able to finish a map for this. Good luck!

[Surreily]

I'm back after forgetting to post the map on Friday - sorry about that. Anyways, here's the promised map:

 

surreily-30sectors.zip

 

Map Title: Strange Structures and Dangerous Demons

Map Slot: MAP15

MIDI used: Ultimate Doom MIDI Pack - "Halls of Wandering Spirits" by Myrgharok

Map Creator: Ultimate Doom Builder

Favorite Screenshot:

Spoiler

 

I'm not 100% happy with how it feels to play - I've tweaked it a bit after several playthroughs, but I'm not really sure how to improve the big open area given that it's basicaully just a bunch of monsters with no real focus. I think the side areas are stronger in this regard as I have more control over player movement and can set up some decent encounters. Also, the name kinda sucks but I have no idea what else to call this thing :P

 

Suggestions for improvements are welcome!

[stochastic]

@Surreily I just played through your map on UV and I really enjoyed it! Really dug the whole aesthetic - the focus on blue, with the tech, metal, wood, and naturalistic textures along with the abstract structures, winding geometry, and water-logged caverns is really unique. Midi choice is just perfect for it as well.

 

The map is well-balanced, with enough ammo and health to get by, but not so much that it insults the player's abilities :) Progression is fairly straight-forward, with a few nods of exploration in the cave sections. 

 

If I had to give a critique, I'd say the weakest part of the map is the combat/enemy encounters. Nothing bad or frustrating, but most of it consisted of incidental combat with lots of hitscanners and mid-tier Doom 2 enemies in the big open area lobbing projectiles from afar, which actually proved to be the most difficult aspect of the map for me. Though I didn't mind this at all, I would have liked to see the more centerpiece fights have some more bite. The keygrab fights, namely the blue key arena and red key cavern crawl felt a little toothless, and could probably benefit from more intentional monster placement/traps. Also, a very minor point, but the impassable linedef on the yellow key ledge preventing you from jumping down felt a bit jarring to me. I REALLY wanted to parkour down back to the watery pathway haha.

 

But all in all, I had a great time playing your map. The atmosphere, aesthetics, and the danger from all directions made this a really memorable one for me. Also, superb reuse of sectors - I forgot I was playing a 30 sector map! Well done!

[stochastic]

@AnArchaicApparatus I just finished up with your map. Wow, what an experience. I have to say I'm not a connoisseur of puzzle maps - I appreciate them for their technical wizardry, their ingenuity, and novelty, but I don't find myself going out of my way to play them.

 

Having said that... between the desolate, claustrophobia-inducing corridors, the moody lighting, and the droning MIDI, I was absolutely entranced by your map. Highlights for me were of course the atmosphere, the surrealist, abstract texture usage, and the main puzzle section I call "the four trials". Each of those puzzles was unique, not overly complicated, but challenging enough to really make you think the solution through (with the blue tech one causing me to belly laugh when I figured it out). 

 

My least favorite aspect of the map was some of the later fights. In UV, I don't think either of the final encounters are survivable without foreknowledge, and ammo/health are pretty tight. Still, it didn't really hamper my enjoyment of the map overall because 1. I took your advice and saved quite a bit and 2. there was cleverness to the fights that, after several attempts, revealed themselves as neat combat puzzles. 

 

That aside, I had a great time losing myself in your map for the better part of 30 minutes - definitely a unique entry, and one I won't soon forget. Well done!

[AnArchaicApparatus]

Spoiler

 

On 12/5/2023 at 12:06 AM, stochastic said:

@AnArchaicApparatus I just finished up with your map. Wow, what an experience. I have to say I'm not a connoisseur of puzzle maps - I appreciate them for their technical wizardry, their ingenuity, and novelty, but I don't find myself going out of my way to play them.

 

Having said that... between the desolate, claustrophobia-inducing corridors, the moody lighting, and the droning MIDI, I was absolutely entranced by your map. Highlights for me were of course the atmosphere, the surrealist, abstract texture usage, and the main puzzle section I call "the four trials". Each of those puzzles was unique, not overly complicated, but challenging enough to really make you think the solution through (with the blue tech one causing me to belly laugh when I figured it out). 

 

My least favorite aspect of the map was some of the later fights. In UV, I don't think either of the final encounters are survivable without foreknowledge, and ammo/health are pretty tight. Still, it didn't really hamper my enjoyment of the map overall because 1. I took your advice and saved quite a bit and 2. there was cleverness to the fights that, after several attempts, revealed themselves as neat combat puzzles. 

 

That aside, I had a great time losing myself in your map for the better part of 30 minutes - definitely a unique entry, and one I won't soon forget. Well done!

 

 

 

 

Thanks for playtesting my map, @stochastic! Tbh I haven't really played that many puzzle WADs or games either, but I'm starting to be interested in slaughter-based puzzle combat and non-combat stuff, and kinda trying to approach it from the perspective of someone who isn't fully steeped in the ooze of either. I usually don't even really play that much difficult or even mid-tier-heavy stuff or too far into lots of WADs, and often kinda lean towards Doom I style low-tier-heavy combat and don't like always largely SSG'ing revenants and barons over and over type stuff for example, so I guess I needed an excuse to break out of my comfort zone. :V

 

Spoiler

Responding point-by-point on the next bit

- Ngl I think more enemy-sparse and atmospheric design bits are a bit of an underrated tool for adding a more dynamic tension/release to stuff, I think it works really well with slaughter elements like how I did it here.

- I love me brick tight corridors, dimmer lighting too.

- I've been experimenting on my own w' longer jam medley midis that kinda go where they please while letting grooves take hold and fade away w'out screaming for much ear-attention (like ultra-bombastic proggy stuff like in certain slaughter WAD tracks I've heard on Youtube), to keep longer levels from getting bogged down due to decent but irritating/dulled-through-repeated-looping midis or whatever, so I took a MIDI chunk I had lying around and thought I'd just keep it going on that main mood and echoing melody for longer for full meditation, while keeping it interesting.

 

- Tbh with a good bit of modern refined mapping, I feel like there's definitely a tenancy to kinda tighten up with texture usage a bit too much, and make maps consistent and intentional looking, at the cost of kinda homogenizing the overall thing, taking away a big part of what can distinguish parts of a level from each other (be it color, theming, specific landmark textures etc) which when not being careful can kinda just make a map look like it's just a variation of a bunch of other maps that did the same color/texture theme... so I just used a cold metal aesthetic vs. hell stuff as a baseline, and didn't think too hard about anything beyond making the results look as good as I could and have the architecture work with the gameplay in this case, so if I saw a texture in the menu and thought, "I think FireBlu should be called FirePoo, that'd be funny I think," it could get thrown in the pot as long as it worked. For the previous map I did, I just went, "haha textures go brrrr," and not even focus on a theme other than making each room look different, almost '94 style but with enough wisdom to not actually go full '94.

- On top of the puzzles not being super hard (I wanted them to be little fun non-combat brain-teasers, not frustrating mind-screws,) if ya go to two areas that have their colored pillar right next to another up the stairway, you only need to do two of them to get through.

- With the blue tech puzzle, that one especially was kinda just me screwing around after not having a fully formed idea, so I just started making a platforming section while kinda rolling the Odessa/90's secret wall thing around, then realized I could do that door fakeout, then threw some light things in there and realized I could use them as a hint, etc.

 

- The tight ammo/health is deliberate. If I modify the map I might add in more health, but otherwise it'll likely stay like that.

- Honestly I thought those two final fights were the most choreographed and tactically solvable before entering the fights. It just requires a slower paced approach.

  > With the Hell Noble fight, the teleporting guys was kinda dickish, but otherwise the pieces are already there. Ya can see the crushers doing their thing, as well as the enemies frozen in place, and realize ya can whittle the enemies down with them, and go back and forth to keep them herded in the middle, while making sure to have enough room to move around, and I used the weapons to get any stray guys blocking me on the sides & when I had enough room to safely clean up the stragglers. It's tricky, but ya can def break it down beforehand.

  > With the bunch of guys and the cyberdemon, the teleporters are hinted at with a texture change, the brightness, and health/armor bonuses, and can be tested before waking up any monsters. Since it's a bunch of different types of guys, if you know infighting mechanics, ya know they can basically trip over themselves and infight almost immediately. The fakeout switch is also kinda dickish, but it's the same deal as w' the caco/pinkie fight, so if you're cautious from stuff like that it's almost nothing. Each time I just beat the fight by flipping back and forth with the teleporters without firing a shot until the infighting left room to take out stragglers again. The cybie is probably a much bigger threat if ya aren't doing the teleporter trick, but honestly I didn't playtest the fighting-down-in-the-thick-of-it strategy too many times, and the telefrag is there for free if you rush it anyways.

 

Given how you described your map as Slaughter-Lite, I'm wondering how our approaches to thinking about combat like this differ, especially since both of our maps fights largely thrive on hoards of mid-tier enemies, but for different ends.

 

 

Again, tysm for playing and the feedback.

I also played your map just after I finished mine and it was great too. Prolly not fully my cup of tea either even though it didn't take me too long to complete with saves.

 

Since I also played Surreilys map after seeing your overview of it, I decided to play that too, and largely agree with your assessment (though I'm prolly more content with the combat.) I'm kinda tempted to play everyone elses maps and do little assessments in a master-post or two w' spoilers to divide each, but Idk if I have the time, and I'm hesitant to @ everyone involved w' le maps lol.

Edited December 7, 2023 by AnArchaicApparatus

[Raith138]

I have expressed before that I am not feeling very motivated to finish this so I am going to make a compromise. All submitted maps and all slots that have been taken will be finished and compiled but I will be closing new slots. And this will have 21 maps in it.

Unless there are large repercussions that I am not thinking of this will be official.

I just don't want to force myself to do something I really don't want to.

 

I really appreciate all the effort that has gone into these maps and don't want them to go to waste.

[stochastic]

6 hours ago, Raith138 said:

I have expressed before that I am not feeling very motivated to finish this so I am going to make a compromise. All submitted maps and all slots that have been taken will be finished and compiled but I will be closing new slots. And this will have 21 maps in it.

Unless there are large repercussions that I am not thinking of this will be official.

I just don't want to force myself to do something I really don't want to.

 

I really appreciate all the effort that has gone into these maps and don't want them to go to waste.

 

Definitely understandable - thanks for choosing to still release the completed/claimed maps. I will have my other submission ready by the end of the year.

[Matt Eldrydge]

I'm in the same boat honestly, I wound up burning out in trying to map for like five different things. I wound up making a lot of changes to it, but I just lack that spark to finish it. If anyone wants to take it upon themselves to finish my map, here's a link. I know it says map 09, that's just what I named the file before realizing someone else had claimed the slot.

 

The layout is 90% done, I was just gonna add two more monster closets, some more details, the exit room and call it done. The idea was leaning into making it a single huge arena-type fight without descending into slaughter, but my mood to work on it just kinda fizzled out in early December.

 

Here's my favorite screenshot, either way.

 

 

And proof I stuck to under 30 sectors.

 

P.S.: The MIDI is Greenhouse by Stewboy. My bad.

[HEXWALKER]

2 hours ago, Raith138 said:

I have expressed before that I am not feeling very motivated to finish this so I am going to make a compromise. All submitted maps and all slots that have been taken will be finished and compiled but I will be closing new slots. And this will have 21 maps in it.

Unless there are large repercussions that I am not thinking of this will be official.

I just don't want to force myself to do something I really don't want to.

 

I really appreciate all the effort that has gone into these maps and don't want them to go to waste.

Understandable, I will have all my stuff in soon, just taking care of a couple other maps that are due next week.

[stochastic]

7 hours ago, Matt Eldrydge said:

If anyone wants to take it upon themselves to finish my map, here's a link.

 

 I have a lot free time this month, so I think I'll give it a go - the screenshot looks awesome! Hopefully I can give the map a worthy ending :)

[Matt Eldrydge]

4 hours ago, stochastic said:

 

 I have a lot free time this month, so I think I'll give it a go - the screenshot looks awesome! Hopefully I can give the map a worthy ending :)

 

Hey, thanks! You might need to do a little more than just the ending, most of the monsters didn't get placed - mostly just the ones in the closets are there. :P

 

Either way, good luck! Feel free to message me if you'd like me to take a look at what you added to the map to make sure our styles work together. :)