Silurian alpha episode: Now on Idgames!

[nicolas monti]

https://www.doomworld.com/idgames/levels/doom/Ports/s-u/silurian

 

Port: any limit removing

Game: Doom

Maps:

 

E1M1: Hangar 83

E1M2: Silurian Labs

E1M3: Liquified

E1M4: Reformatory

E1M5: Maintenance Area

E1M6: Crew Expendable

E1M7: Statu Quo

E1M8: Places to Hold

E1M9: Arrayanes

 

 

 

 

Edited January 2 by nicolas monti

[Firedust]

Screenshots look great!

[nicolas monti]

6 hours ago, Firedust said:

Screenshots look great!

 

Thanks man, I have that fetish for alpha textures, proud of the sky I must admit

[nicolas monti]

Second map ready; E1M2: Silurian Labs

 

https://www.mediafire.com/file/97oaagiur73f49t/silurian02.wad/file

 

 

Edited October 8, 2023 by nicolas monti

[Pechudin]

Is that texture alignment? In Monti's maps?

 

EDIT: They do look pretty nice. A what-if of the original Doom. Looks more like a real place.

[nicolas monti]

4 hours ago, Pechudin said:

Is that texture alignment? In Monti's maps?

 

EDIT: They do look pretty nice. A what-if of the original Doom. Looks more like a real place.

 

thanks man, 50% aligned /50% not aligned

It seems that I posted in the wrong section, I'll see if this thread can be moved onto wad releases and development

[nicolas monti]

E1M3: Liquified. Ready for playtesting

 

https://www.mediafire.com/file/vbx0cksvrtnbte9/silurian03.wad/file

 

 

 

Edited October 8, 2023 by nicolas monti

[Wo0p]

Ooooh this looks super interesting. Must play, rawr!

 

------------ EDIT ---------

 

Just finished playing through the mapset and I really enjoyed it. It's JUST my speed. No insta-death closets putting 30 revenants up your bum at every button-press. Cleverly hidden traps, lots of weak fodder troops to blast that makes it fun to play. And also the alternate skins for the guns were a lovely breath of fresh air, as well as the Pinky's death anim.

 

You have a nice handle on making spaces I think. It's neither too much room to move around, nor too little. It's just right, and I could certainly learn something from that :) also liked the textures you used and how you used them: everything fits together thematically and artistically and was stimulating to look at despite being all vanilla sprites + franken edits (I might be wrong but it seemed that way to me).

 

I didn't find any bugs or exploits in my playthrough with GZDoom 4.10 but I wasn't looking specifically for exploits. 

Edited September 13, 2023 by Wo0p

[nicolas monti]

On 9/12/2023 at 6:10 PM, Wo0p said:

Ooooh this looks super interesting. Must play, rawr!

 

------------ EDIT ---------

 

Just finished playing through the mapset and I really enjoyed it. It's JUST my speed. No insta-death closets putting 30 revenants up your bum at every button-press. Cleverly hidden traps, lots of weak fodder troops to blast that makes it fun to play. And also the alternate skins for the guns were a lovely breath of fresh air, as well as the Pinky's death anim.

 

You have a nice handle on making spaces I think. It's neither too much room to move around, nor too little. It's just right, and I could certainly learn something from that :) also liked the textures you used and how you used them: everything fits together thematically and artistically and was stimulating to look at despite being all vanilla sprites + franken edits (I might be wrong but it seemed that way to me).

 

I didn't find any bugs or exploits in my playthrough with GZDoom 4.10 but I wasn't looking specifically for exploits. 

 

Thanks man, The pinky death anim needs some tweaking, maybe making the corpse disapear after the explosion

The aim is not to make the maps too big and create some crampness so the weak monsters are more meanacing.

all the patches are ID originals, Yes, I've made some custom textures with those patches like using the exit door frames and other things like that.

 

Here is the four map

E1M4: Reformatory

 

https://www.mediafire.com/file/24oskwskuerl93j/silurian04.wad/file

 

 

 

Edited October 8, 2023 by nicolas monti

[Wo0p]

16 hours ago, nicolas monti said:

 

Thanks man, The pinky death anim needs some tweaking, maybe making the corpse disapear after the explosion

The aim is not to make the maps too big and create some crampness so the weak monsters are more meanacing.

all the patches are ID originals, Yes, I've made some custom textures with those patches like using the exit door frames and other things like that.

 

No problem.

I think you hit the mark in that case, imps in close quarters in particular can quickly escalate dangerously and I felt that while playing. I did indeed die a few times hehe. Can't wait to play the next one. :)

[nicolas monti]

On 9/16/2023 at 8:41 AM, Wo0p said:

 

No problem.

I think you hit the mark in that case, imps in close quarters in particular can quickly escalate dangerously and I felt that while playing. I did indeed die a few times hehe. Can't wait to play the next one. :)

 

thanks man, talking about close quarters and monsters breathing on your neck here is the new map

 

E1M5: Maintenance Area

https://www.mediafire.com/file/ls2v5dobugeyf6w/silurian05.wad/file

 

 

 

Edited October 8, 2023 by nicolas monti

[Firedust]

Great screenies as usual!

 

You might want to ask one of the mods to move this thread into wads and mods btw :)

[nicolas monti]

2 minutes ago, Firedust said:

Great screenies as usual!

 

You might want to ask one of the mods to move this thread into wads and mods btw :)

 

Thanks, I've asked that, I'm not sure if that is possible.. I mean, keeping the thread unaltered.

 

EDIT: lol it just happened

[nicolas monti]

E1M6 ready: Crew Expendable

 

https://www.mediafire.com/file/wd9qts32vsw4q9y/silurian06.wad/file

 

 

[nicolas monti]

E1M7 ready: Statu Quo

the big one

 

https://www.mediafire.com/file/39itb9uq9ar9u4o/silurian07.wad/file

 

 

[rzh]

I like the look and the layout of this map a lot, but I have some criticisms (keep in mind I'm not a big fan of huge maps so I'm not to be taken too seriously):

• the first room is too dark (at least on my display, not sure about other monitors), this hid away most of the visually interesting stuff and made it hard to navigate without automap
• the blue key area has some switches that are hard to find (the one below room level especially took me a while to find), so I feel like the path to get to them could stand out a little bit more (it's a huge open room with lots of action so by the end of it I was a bit confused about my surroundings)
• overall, the map feels a bit too grindy, there's pretty much a constant influx of enemies after the very beginning and after you get far enough into the side rooms with the yellow/ blue keys that lasts until the end, I feel like the number of enemies could match with Doom 2's style more (with its added enemies that spice up the combat a little bit), but here it gets tiring after a while (and I didn't have the patience to get 100% kills haha)

As for bugs, I could only find one: the yellow key cyberdemon did not always spawn for me, but I'm not sure why (I played it on Woof with complevel 3/ vanilla Doom).

This is also the first map from this WAD that I've played so far because I just got back into Doom and saw it was very, very fresh and it's a bit interesting to me, because it reminds me a lot in some ways of Eviltech, since I don't think I've played anything more recent than that from you that had such clean texture alignments or slaughter-ish gameplay. I also don't think you've ever used Alpha resources so intensely before (keys, weapons, lost souls, projectiles), so it's a very interesting shift in style for me (correct me if I'm wrong though). Amazing sky as usual too!

I'm glad to get back into Doom just in time for another Nicolas Monti episode, can't wait to play the whole thing (it's not the same without the MIDIs you use).

[nicolas monti]

E1M9: Arrayanes

only one more to go

 

https://www.mediafire.com/file/ovi0matlpdgow0x/silurian08.wad/file

 

 

 

 

Edited October 18, 2023 by nicolas monti

[Noiser]

Another awesome Nicolas Monti episode, here we goooo! 8D

[nicolas monti]

On 10/14/2023 at 5:24 PM, rzh said:

I like the look and the layout of this map a lot, but I have some criticisms (keep in mind I'm not a big fan of huge maps so I'm not to be taken too seriously):

• the first room is too dark (at least on my display, not sure about other monitors), this hid away most of the visually interesting stuff and made it hard to navigate without automap
• the blue key area has some switches that are hard to find (the one below room level especially took me a while to find), so I feel like the path to get to them could stand out a little bit more (it's a huge open room with lots of action so by the end of it I was a bit confused about my surroundings)
• overall, the map feels a bit too grindy, there's pretty much a constant influx of enemies after the very beginning and after you get far enough into the side rooms with the yellow/ blue keys that lasts until the end, I feel like the number of enemies could match with Doom 2's style more (with its added enemies that spice up the combat a little bit), but here it gets tiring after a while (and I didn't have the patience to get 100% kills haha)

As for bugs, I could only find one: the yellow key cyberdemon did not always spawn for me, but I'm not sure why (I played it on Woof with complevel 3/ vanilla Doom).

This is also the first map from this WAD that I've played so far because I just got back into Doom and saw it was very, very fresh and it's a bit interesting to me, because it reminds me a lot in some ways of Eviltech, since I don't think I've played anything more recent than that from you that had such clean texture alignments or slaughter-ish gameplay. I also don't think you've ever used Alpha resources so intensely before (keys, weapons, lost souls, projectiles), so it's a very interesting shift in style for me (correct me if I'm wrong though). Amazing sky as usual too!

I'm glad to get back into Doom just in time for another Nicolas Monti episode, can't wait to play the whole thing (it's not the same without the MIDIs you use).

 

Thanks man, I get the criticism, the truth is that I don't like big maps either so this one (E1M7) is the exception. The rest of the episode is on the regular side regarding size and combat. I just often reserve the seventh maps of the episodes for something more "monumental".

on the darkness I have my monitor with the bright set to minimum, perhaps is a port thing, try not to use opengl or things like that (I'm an australopithecus concerning PC stuff).

I think that lowering the enemy count would retrieve an empty map, it's difficult to get things spicy without revenants, archviles or pain elementals so I had to make use of quantity there, on the other side there are plenty of rockets and plasma to clean your way.

I'll check the cyberdemon problem you mention, didn't happen to me, I'm using DSDA or something like that lol, that PRboom modified port.

Thanks for paying attention to the sky! I'll see if I make the midis myself or just throw something retro from the 80's and 90's

[nicolas monti]

E1M8 is ready, as the whole episode, some final testing and straight to Idgames

 

https://www.mediafire.com/file/2r8wt458buc1vxz/silurian09.wad/file

 

 

[Firedust]

Hello, friend! Started my playthrough of Silurian. If you aren't in any rush to upload it to idgames, just wait till I'm done - I shouldn't take too long anyway :)

Beat the first map, and the first thing that astounded me was how surprisingly uncharacteristic it was for your mapping style! Some doomcute planes, air traffic controller room, very tidy visuals! Loved the use of alpha resources! Will edit this post if I run into any bugs.

[nicolas monti]

On 12/22/2023 at 11:48 AM, Firedust said:

Hello, friend! Started my playthrough of Silurian. If you aren't in any rush to upload it to idgames, just wait till I'm done - I shouldn't take too long anyway :)

Beat the first map, and the first thing that astounded me was how surprisingly uncharacteristic it was for your mapping style! Some doomcute planes, air traffic controller room, very tidy visuals! Loved the use of alpha resources! Will edit this post if I run into any bugs.

 

Thanls for the feefback as usual, I really like cheese furniture although I didn't make use of it that much in this episode. The idea is to have it uploaded before the year ends, minor things are being corrected, some more bugs, the midis and done!

[Firedust]

16 hours ago, nicolas monti said:

 

Thanls for the feefback as usual, I really like cheese furniture although I didn't make use of it that much in this episode. The idea is to have it uploaded before the year ends, minor things are being corrected, some more bugs, the midis and done!

I've only got two maps to go!

EDIT: Welp, E1M7 is gargantuan and I fucking love it lmao

BTW is this the mapset that you had been teasing a few years ago? Or am I mixing things up?

EDIT 2: E1M8, berserk secret. The staircase ceiling is too low making it impossible to get out of the alcove.

Edited December 24, 2023 by Firedust

[Firedust]

I am done! Apologies for the double post. Only found one bug, it's in the post above.

Got a few thoughts to share on your recent output.

First of all, congrats on the silver cacoward for Solve Et Coagula! Very well deserved, it was an excellent e2 replacement. BTW I reported a couple bugs in that thread, but you never replied to me. Hopefully, you'll get around to fixing them eventually, should only take you a few minutes :)

Secondly, I'd like to talk about this particular episode a bit more in depth. You know, I've been following your output since the first Favillesco episode (still a huge fan of all four), and I've religiously played everything you've put out (except the 1994 project episode, those sprites ahaha). It was a real thrill to watch you experiment with various facets of gameplay - RL-heavy mapsets (Mano Laikas), borderline Ribbiks-tier encounters, secret-heavy maps, etc. In terms of combat, Silurian is what you'd expect from a slightly harder E1 replacement on UV with an occasional cyb added in to keep things spicy. Visually, this is one of your most polished works, hands down. There were practically no texture misalignments, everything looked super coherent, and the alpha texture pack in tandem with gloomy lighting and cosmic void sky (in the darker levels especially, just look at E1M7) evoked a perpertual sense of dread - perfect for a 3-hour horror-adjacent Doom experience. And this time around, map areas occasionally look like actual places that serve some kind of purpose - without ever venturing beyond the classic Doom abstractness of course. Not sure how much of a fan you are of this episode yourself, but to me, this is comfortably a top 4 monti release.

I would be very interested in hearing about how you rank your own work, because personally, I have loved pretty much everything you've done except a couple episodes to which I'll get in a moment. Which ones did you enjoy mapping the most?

IMO Rupture was probably the true lowpoint of your mapping career - texturing was uncreatively monotonous, a lot of encounters were ostentatiously/pointlessly super mean and just plain not fun, level navigation was confusing because of how samey everything looked - I just didn't enjoy it a lot. Then KDI2023 came along, and that was an improvement, albeit a minor one. The whole barrel gimmick wore off very quickly for me and episode fatigue kicked in a few maps into the set. Luckily the level layouts were great, but once again texturing wasn't on the same level as in your previous outings - Cyberpunx, Enceladus, Doom Island, 60 secrets, you name it. It seemed you lacked your usual focus. The true highlight was e1m8 there, because it was a huge outlier. That level was awesome. Thankfully, afterwards, you made one hell of a comeback with Solve Et Coagula, a rollercoaster of an e2 with the monti mapping tropes I've come to adore.

So yeah, thanks for making this fantastic episode, excited for more from you in the future!

Edited December 24, 2023 by Firedust

[nicolas monti]

3 hours ago, Firedust said:

I am done! Apologies for the double post. Only found one bug, it's in the post above.

Got a few thoughts to share on your recent output.

First of all, congrats on the silver cacoward for Solve Et Coagula! Very well deserved, it was an excellent e2 replacement. BTW I reported a couple bugs in that thread, but you never replied to me. Hopefully, you'll get around to fixing them eventually, should only take you a few minutes :)

Secondly, I'd like to talk about this particular episode a bit more in depth. You know, I've been following your output since the first Favillesco episode (still a huge fan of all four), and I've religiously played everything you've put out (except the 1994 project episode, those sprites ahaha). It was a real thrill to watch you experiment with various facets of gameplay - RL-heavy mapsets (Mano Laikas), borderline Ribbiks-tier encounters, secret-heavy maps, etc. In terms of combat, Silurian is what you'd expect from a slightly harder E1 replacement on UV with an occasional cyb added in to keep things spicy. Visually, this is one of your most polished works, hands down. There were practically no texture misalignments, everything looked super coherent, and the alpha texture pack in tandem with gloomy lighting and cosmic void sky (in the darker levels especially, just look at E1M7) evoked a perpertual sense of dread - perfect for a 3-hour horror-adjacent Doom experience. And this time around, map areas occasionally look like actual places that serve some kind of purpose - without ever venturing beyond the classic Doom abstractness of course. Not sure how much of a fan you are of this episode yourself, but to me, this is comfortably a top 4 monti release.

I would be very interested in hearing about how you rank your own work, because personally, I have loved pretty much everything you've done except a couple episodes to which I'll get in a moment. Which ones did you enjoy mapping the most?

IMO Rupture was probably the true lowpoint of your mapping career - texturing was uncreatively monotonous, a lot of encounters were ostentatiously/pointlessly super mean and just plain not fun, level navigation was confusing because of how samey everything looked - I just didn't enjoy it a lot. Then KDI2023 came along, and that was an improvement, albeit a minor one. The whole barrel gimmick wore off very quickly for me and episode fatigue kicked in a few maps into the set. Luckily the level layouts were great, but once again texturing wasn't on the same level as in your previous outings - Cyberpunx, Enceladus, Doom Island, 60 secrets, you name it. It seemed you lacked your usual focus. The true highlight was e1m8 there, because it was a huge outlier. That level was awesome. Thankfully, afterwards, you made one hell of a comeback with Solve Et Coagula, a rollercoaster of an e2 with the monti mapping tropes I've come to adore.

So yeah, thanks for making this fantastic episode, excited for more from you in the future!

 

Thanks man, I appreciate!

I've already fixed that backpack secret on E1M8, that bug reminded me to those alpha spawning vats stairs which are to low. I had checked the map but somehow I accidentally lowered that ceiling to much.

about your previous question, I wasn't teasing this mapset years ago, I focus one project at a time and finish it as soon as I can.

 

I'm surprised about you rankings because I don't feel that much difference on gameplay from let's say Rupture and Solve et Coagula, that being said I can just remember every encounter and make a serious conclusion about it, the idea is to get just a tiny little better with every release, I don't know if I'm achieving that goal in any case.

 

I've never though about a ranking except for my favourite mapset but I'll try one:

 

#1: Favillesco, amalthea: my first alpha episode, every map feels like it has its own soul, it's simple, maps are not too big, it emanates that early 90s feeling, at least to me. favourite maps E4M4 and E4M6.

 

#2: Mano laikas: sort of the same vein of Amalthea, but this time with other themes, the ones I like the most: E1, E2/alphaish plus some abstract ones, not too big maps, early wads feeling too.

 

#3: Reticula Episode 1: very old-school, some hell levels here, I like the sky, it has personal midis, map09 is one of my favourites.

 

#4: Doom Island: old school to the top, crappy texture combinations like startan and marble in the same room, lovely sky witch combines two old school skies and tree sprites from blood. One of my most unnoticed wads.

 

As you see this is mostly a nostalgic list because 3 out of 4 are early works, my most definite influences are E1, E2, alphas and smiley head safari because it was the only pwad I played back in the mid 90s. This is crucial to understand why I map the way I do and I understand that many people just don't feel it.

 

Some honourable mentions: Alpha centauri, because I went ambitious with lighting and back to 1994 because I really like the crazy smiley head safari-esque theme.

 

EDIT: about Solve et Coagula, sorry, I didn't get to read you message, I've just uploaded the update, just moved that monster closet 8 units to the left.

Edited December 24, 2023 by nicolas monti