Damnation - new map, testers needed

[darkreaver]

I needed a break from my regular mapping, so I made a new slaughter speedmap (well, speed`ish). It`s the spiritual successor to Ancient Hatred ( http://www.doomworld.com/idgames/index.php?id=16351 )

The thing is that I`m not the best player, so I need a little help with balancing the ammo/health. Pretty please?

The map:

-name "Damnation"
-map24 replacement
-Boom
-150 sectors big (small)
-Stock textures
-360 monsters

screens:

http://img35.imageshack.us/i/screenshotdoom201105020.png/
http://img508.imageshack.us/i/screenshotdoom201105020.png/
http://img863.imageshack.us/i/screenshotdoom201105020.png/

DL:

http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?elussyh9ld0hxmx
https://rapidshare.com/files/460180531/damn.wad
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=T59IZU2J

I`m really tired now, so I`m almost positive I`ve forgotten something essential lol, but anyway...give it a try if you want :)
Oh, and yeah, only UV-skill available atm.

[gggmork]

fairly fun but kinda tedious imo, like killing all those chaingunners. I don't know how a really fast max would play but a fairly careful max isn't very hard relative to other stuff. Usually more mixed monsters and smaller areas are better for gameplay than trying to do an epic 200 same-species zerg rush imo, but it can be interesting sometimes.
You can hit the mastermind switch from the outside and make it fight the revenants but I didn't bother with that in this demo where I accidently killed myself with a rocket against the side of the cliff when I fell off.
http://www.speedyshare.com/files/28248937/damn-ggg-fail.lmp
also, when the wall opens to the end area, the end sector on either side are at a height so you can't step up to those medkits cuz your head hits the ceiling.

[Phml]

I originally tried a FDA and after multiple deaths I barely killed 18 monsters. I then ran through on IDDQD, and tried again to play it normally without "tricks", but the map is so much harder if you don't try to speedrun/break it.

I felt you went backwards with this map as it requires even more previous knowledge than the first one IMHO. It's playable in an extremely tedious way without that knowledge. Also, unless I'm mistaken, that megasphere near the start is only attainable with an AV jump?

I think I've already said it for the previous one, but the single thought that kept passing through my mind while playing this is... "really? REALLY?". Just seems like you're constantly trying to screw the player over. :P

Ammo seems plentiful. Health is OK. The main problem, for me, is with the monster usage along with the layout, too many archviles in wide open rooms, too much incentive to just skip the current fight and run until BFG+invul+cybers, not only you get maximum infighting that way but it's also easier than the other alternatives.

There's a small HOM at linedef 15, it's missing a back texture.

Edit: linedef 327 is fairly easy to break without trying (by simply going fast, as it's going downwards in height), if it happens the player is stuck.

[darkreaver]

Thanks for feedback.

You are very right. I was trying to screw the player over, but it just ended up getting really tedious I guess. So...I`ll loosen up the gameplay a little (or alot?). I think I went a bit overboard at times there. I guess I wanted those "what? really?!" moments because most reviews of "Ancient Hatred" said it was an easy map...I dunno. I think they`re both hard, lulz.

Should I make it FDA friendly? That is, beatable on 2-3 tries. Seems to me thats what most people want.

I`ll also fix the errors, of course.

[DeathevokatioN]

It was fun all the way up to the horde of Revenants for me... although it wasn't them that annoyed me so much as it was the archviles guarding all the cell ammo that spoiled my fun haha... maybe swap those out for hell knights or barons? It'd still make it risky getting cell ammo and you'd probably still get hit a few times but atleast that way you CAN still get the much needed cell ammo to deal with the revenants. :P

[edit]
Other than that this is a fun map (from what I've played atleast).

[Phml]

most reviews of "Ancient Hatred" said it was an easy map...

Reviews claiming hard maps are too easy are a dime a dozen, but somehow demos for these very same hard maps from those very people who claim these maps to be easy are few, if any.

Needless to say, between e-peen waggling and port features (I've seen so many people complaining about vanilla wads being too easy while they used the blockmap fix, full mouselook and no autoaim, jumping, crouching, and for extreme cases even respawning ammo or gameplay-altering mods), I wouldn't take these kind of reviews at face value.

That said, I think UV is fine as it is. It's just something I'm not super fond of personally. If I were to tweak it, I'd probably give the shotgun right away and not have the chaingunner facing the player right at the start (could have 2 chaingunners facing the other way), make the start area wider generally, add warnings (i.e different lighting, pool of blood, doomguy corpse, w/e) before the monsters coming fast out of the ground, making the megasphere reachable without an AV jump (could be a secret switch somewhere?), probably make the part with the arachnotrons a bit wider too. The archvile use, as repetitive as it might be, didn't seem over the top, it's the layout that made it so. The revenant horde I didn't have a problem with either, there's ample room given in that room and it forces you to find a balance between taking out just enough of them to be able to get to the switch, or wasting time killing the whole horde.

Of course, adding a HMP difficulty like you did for Ancient Hatred could be just as good.

[darkreaver]

Thanks alot, I`ll see what I can do :)

When I play, I dont kill any of the revenants to begin with. I just wait in a corner of the hall, and run past them. Kill the viles and grab ammo+hit switch, run out and grab invul. Kill the viles, grab more ammo, go kill the cybers (at least two, maybe leave one for infighting). The rest is just cleaning up the mess/rest.
Sooo, I dunno what to do with that area at least. Its the chaingunners in the towers in the main hall thats most tedious I think.