Saying hi and and presenting a wad

[larsboy]

Hi, I wanted to introduce myself, as I might stay around, and present a wad I've made.

I finally got online after being off for a long time, and I've uploaded a map I made a while ago. It's in newstuff now, and it's called Courtyard Escape (coutesc.zip). It's far from the first thing I've made in Doom, but I haven't released much before. It's a castle/courtyard map, and needs gothictx.wad. It has a very open layout; you can get the keys in any order, and it plays a little differently every time. I wanted to make something you can play many times, and develop different strategies. I've spent a lot of time tweaking it, and I'm pleased with the result.

[Epyo]

Hmm, it could use some more cover, or a trench you can defend of some sort. I don't know what to say. It was too hard on hey, not too rough.

When I killed something it didn't feel good at all because there were so many monsters elsewhere. 1 corpse just blended in with the ground. Maybe if the monsters were clumped together more, then killing a big clump of monsters would feel good. Maybe, I don't know. There's something wrong.

[larsboy]

Well, it's supposed to be hard, but what the player needs to do is figure out a good route, a right way of handling things. There's plenty of health, and the powerup spheres at the center is an important key. I'm not a particularly good player, but I can complete it, killing everything, on HMP without saving. Takes me about 40 minutes, the good demorecorders would be able to do it much faster of course. Anyway, thanks for the feedback.

[Epyo]

I'm playing it again. With a little bit more patience I'm having a bit more fun. The main problem was not knowing what to do. Once I found some guns I took out some monsters and finally had a bit of time to look around.

Ok so now I just need that red key to finish. Been waltzing around trying to figure out how to open the door to that building. How?

[larsboy]

Yea, I guess that switch can be hard to spot. It's on the stands just north (on the automap) of the door.

Some more tips:
* Unless you're playing on the easiest levels, the first thing to do is get the shotgun from the gallows just outside and to the north from where you start.
* Next thing, go south, through the cemetery without picking up the super shotgun, and north to the small building. The switch here builds the stairs to the spheres in the center of the courtyard. The monsters released can mostly kill each other. Later, the two buildings they were released from (at the north end) make good cover.
* Playing on HMP or above, I get the megasphere right before going for the super shotgun, since the trap here is nasty. As for the other spheres, I use the invisibility for the blue key building to take out the chaingunners, and the invunerability when I get the blue key to take out the two archviles released.
* Make sure to press the switch by the blue key to access the plasma rifle.
* The BFG becomes accessible once you have all three keys.
* The three secrets are useful, and should be easy to find if you pay attention to details.

[Grazza]

Yeah, this map is a bit of a killer.

Here's a UV Speed demo in 3:01 (Doom2.exe format - plays back with Prboom or Eternity). It's a first exit, and messy and a bit ugly in places. Might be interesting to anyone who is having problems finding their way around this map though, except that it doesn't show how to reach any of the big weapons.

[Use]

Whew pretty tough map, it looks really nice too, cool to see the gothic textures put to use again. I haven't beat it yet, but I'm making progress. I picked up the super first and have been doing well with that.

[larsboy]

Nice demo Grazza, I enjoyed watching that. I worked hard to make sure that speedrunning is very hard, but possible; that you can just grab the keys and run, but that there's always monsters getting in your way, and if you stop to take out one or go for an item, more monsters will show up. I'm not skilled enough to pull off an UV speedrun, best I can do is a careful maxkill on HMP.

[Grazza]

I spent a bit of time improving UV Speed and doing a UV Pacifist too. Links here.