Star Light Dynamics -a sci-fi themed wad- (6 maps)

[NoC0ncentrate51]

Star Light Dynamics is a doomII boom wad comprised of 5 (plus a credits map) science fiction themed maps

 

Something has went wrong with the teleportation research vessel "The Nameless Traveler"
and a hostile invasion of unknown origin has started has result.
You must destroy the vessel, assisted by your thematically appropriate arsenal, and stop the invasion
 

-map list-  
map01: awaken by starlight
map02: ship of the blue spark
map03: conscious star maintenance station
map04: refueling needed
map05: home of the sparkling gods
map06: reality exited successfully insert code 230 to report

 

-tested with woof

 

download:https://www.mediafire.com/file/g0kbkhs4r1adbki/starlightdynamics1.3.zip/file

screenshots: 
                          

Edited August 16 by NoC0ncentrate51 : fixed even more miscellaneous bugs that people pointed out

[Maribo]

This is a lovely little surprise of a WAD. Between the weapon/monster replacements and the aesthetic design, it almost feels like full-fledged TC at times, and it's only when you're faced with one of the vanilla monster sprites that you're reminded how you're still playing Doom at its core. The first three maps play the concept pretty straight, but the fourth and fifth throw some curve-balls that really end up making it memorable. Wonderful job.

 

starlightdynamics-maribo.zip - a pack of casual playthrough demos, in -dsdademo format. They'll play back on DSDA-Doom v0.28.0.

 

Some notes/bugs about assets:

Spoiler

- Your TITLEPIC and INTERPIC are both 256x240 instead of the expected 320x200 and this causes funky HOMs on the right side of the screen on the relevant menus/screens.

- Some of your CWILV graphics are too long and end up trailing off the screen.

- A good chunk of your intermission screen and menu graphics have single stray dark brown/red pixels in them, you probably just missed them when doing palette conversion.

[ByRntStarOEI]

I'm a fan of space theme games similar to system shock or prey, so I had to give this wad a try when I seen it. Maribo's reply pretty much covers how I feel about this wad, it's nicely done and was enjoyable to play through. I especially like the over grown level and I believe it was the best looking out of the bunch. The rundown/destroyed station aesthetic was great, too, but I am a little disappointed it wasn't used all that much. While the maps gave off the impression of great scale, they where actually rather short.  But I'm not complaining; it was nice to be able to finish  a map set in a single session for a change. Overall, I didn't run into any major bugs or concerns. Great job and I highly recommend to others to give it a play.

 

Some minor stuff I noticed:

Spoiler

(I took screenshots, but didn't realize they where only coming in as black screens for some reason... so I'll just make do without)

 

Played in dsdadoom on UV. Started with software renderer, but then switched over to opengl.

 

- Running the wad in the software renderer makes the beginning and ending text jumbled/unreadable. This is usually the case when using a "see-through" texture on a solid wall. Works fine in opengl, however. Figured I'll bring it up in case you wanted to mention that in your text file or something or the sort

 

- It took me a bit before I found the exit from the first level. Didn't realize I was suppose to go inside the space ship as I just thought it was scenery.

 

- Some of the traps seem to activate too soon, like in the overgrown level where the floor falls (It fell before I even walk over it). I didn't run into any cases where it softlocked me or anything, as I still needed to proced forward, but it did cause a loss in the trap's surprise factor.

 

- Back to the overgrown map: When opening the yellow key door, the two cacos were just sitting there looking at me for some odd reason. The only way they would activate was when I shot them, stepped back a ways, or walked into them. I'm guessing there is something up with the nodes in that section causing a blind spot?

 

- When blowing up the core in the last level, it took a few attempts before actually doing a proper death exit for some reason and not just sending back to the start of the level.

 

 

 

[LVENdead]

Solid set of maps. I love the theme and how all the assets create a real cohesive style. It's a blast to tear through with all the pew pew energy weapons. The maps do a lot with paired back design and are nice bite size chunks that don't dwell on any one concept for too long. I was a little bummed when I got to the end, I would have played more.

 

 

[kvothesixstring]

Really nice set! I enjoyed running through these maps. Great atmosphere and pacing. Music selection was on point. Look forward to doing some runs of these maps.

Thanks for making this!

[SleepyVelvet]

Oozing with atmosphere, mood, and *ehem* "sense of place".  I make it through all of 3 and 4, but got through most of it, and loved all of it.

 

Minor bugs:

-Found a softlock at the end of 2 and beginning of 3 (which I qualify as a successful TKO exit in terms of a Doom win ;) )

-Missing flats (shows when software rendering)

-A few HOMs here and there.

 

FDAs:  noisy_starlightdynamics.zip

[LadyMistDragon]

Wondering what happened to you. :) Atmosphere might be the best you've ever done. Moreover, the way the monsters and weapons match this depressive sci-fi thing happening here is definitely top-notch.

 

 

[NoC0ncentrate51]

19 hours ago, ByRntStarOEI said:

I'm a fan of space theme games similar to system shock or prey, so I had to give this wad a try when I seen it. Maribo's reply pretty much covers how I feel about this wad, it's nicely done and was enjoyable to play through. I especially like the over grown level and I believe it was the best looking out of the bunch. The rundown/destroyed station aesthetic was great, too, but I am a little disappointed it wasn't used all that much. While the maps gave off the impression of great scale, they where actually rather short.  But I'm not complaining; it was nice to be able to finish  a map set in a single session for a change. Overall, I didn't run into any major bugs or concerns. Great job and I highly recommend to others to give it a play.

 

Some minor stuff I noticed:

  Reveal hidden contents

(I took screenshots, but didn't realize they where only coming in as black screens for some reason... so I'll just make do without)

 

Played in dsdadoom on UV. Started with software renderer, but then switched over to opengl.

 

- Running the wad in the software renderer makes the beginning and ending text jumbled/unreadable. This is usually the case when using a "see-through" texture on a solid wall. Works fine in opengl, however. Figured I'll bring it up in case you wanted to mention that in your text file or something or the sort

 

- It took me a bit before I found the exit from the first level. Didn't realize I was suppose to go inside the space ship as I just thought it was scenery.

 

- Some of the traps seem to activate too soon, like in the overgrown level where the floor falls (It fell before I even walk over it). I didn't run into any cases where it softlocked me or anything, as I still needed to proced forward, but it did cause a loss in the trap's surprise factor.

 

- Back to the overgrown map: When opening the yellow key door, the two cacos were just sitting there looking at me for some odd reason. The only way they would activate was when I shot them, stepped back a ways, or walked into them. I'm guessing there is something up with the nodes in that section causing a blind spot?

 

- When blowing up the core in the last level, it took a few attempts before actually doing a proper death exit for some reason and not just sending back to the start of the level.

 

 

 

Im glad you enjoyed my wad :) 

has for the software render visual bugs, I play tested the wad with woof (on software render of course) those didn't show up, I guess Ill just have to start testing my wads with dsda, anyways all the bugs you pointed out should be fixed now  

[NoC0ncentrate51]

5 hours ago, LadyMistDragon said:

Wondering what happened to you. :) Atmosphere might be the best you've ever done. Moreover, the way the monsters and weapons match this depressive sci-fi thing happening here is definitely top-notch.

 

 

yea, I took a bit of a break from mapping to focus on some other stuff and I took some extra time with this one to make it has good has I could, anyways im glad you enjoyed it :)  

[TheGreenZap]

Very cool wad. I'm about midway through and having a good time with it. Nice job on the space theme as well.

[galileo31dos01]

Hello! I just completed this wad. I had a pleasant time here, pretty much enjoyed every single aspect there was to appreciate - fun low-ish demand gameplay with some spice for measure (from my POV), nice visuals and nice palette. One of my favorite things was how many projectiles and even hitscan puffs resembled like I was shooting stars, that simply added bonus points because it made using the shotgun replacement actually joyful. I was so glad to see the cacobot again, and the jetpack trooper that reminded of Valiant's arachnorb -coincidentally one of my favorite custom enemies ever- was a great addition for a flier-type on theme. The weapon 6 was satisfying to use, I admit at first I assumed the stars inflicted extra splash damage upon blasting, because of the sfx, but soon I figured that wasn't the case. Yeah good times!

 

Below are a handful observations I made related to easily avoidable softlocks, though still existent, and other less relevant stuff. Fortunately I can omit some things that other people already addressed. This is dsda-doom cl9, UV/PS, openGL since the first text on map 01 is glitched in software (as Maribo said).

 

Spoiler

- Minor suggestion: the vending machines could give something when you press on them, like bonus potions or helmets. It's always a little fun thing when you get a prize for interacting with an object and, vending machines in doom are perfect for that, up to you of course.

- Not sure if it's a typo or on purpose but it's spelled "ditance" instead of "distance" on this texture

 

02

- You can walk through some of the railings around the start.

- Suggestion: monster block lines around the lift -- on return there were some sergeants and a robo-knight waiting down, and unluckily the knight stepped on the lift as it raised while I was trying to prevent that from happening, and yeah it went up and rather used noclip to kill it.

 

- Specific to opengl, the sectors for the UFOs display HOMs or the red "missing texture" sign. May look fine in software though since there's different visual glitches with either renderer it might still be worth fixing.

 

03

- The switch for the secret doesn't animate when shooting at it. Not a big thing since you can still see the soulsphere lowering from afar. 

 

04

- It's possible, but unlikely, to become softlocked should you back down immediately as the barrier raises in the final setup. The trigger for the barrier should be a little farther imo. I'll also mention the trap where the ground descends quickly to a lower level with monsters on both sides, I accidentally "cheesed" it because I backed down just at the same time the floor collapsed, and seconds after that I found the secret shoot switch, which alerted said monsters, and then looked for the secret, and then saw the jetpack dudes sneaking over the big gap on the floor. So what I'm saying is, even though this sequence of events was a coincidence for me, it says that this trap is activated a bit too soon...

- The message for the fuel pickup says you grabbed a blue key. Maybe that could be updated in dehacked?

 

05

- Small suggestion: some automap cleanup in this map could be useful for immersion's sake. 

- Some misaligned textures in this room. BTW nice use of Struggle assets! ... at least I believe it's where they're from.

 

06

- Minor HOM visible under the thank u messages. 

- Similar suggestion about the automap, that it could use some cleanup too imo.

 

Thanks for sharing this! 

[bsharp]

just finished playing through on uv+saves. really nice silver base theming---map02 especially---but the scenery changes towards the end of the set are really solid as well. love the big fights, only wish map05 was a tad harder. really great effort here, thanks for keeping doom sci-fi fresh :D