Sinister Intention - Doom 2 levelset

[ComicMischief]

I thought it's about time I made my own update topic since I've got a name for this here thing, and a good handful of levels.

SINISTER INTENTION

A little history; I used to map for Doom around 2000/2001-ish and was an auspicious little bastard who loved his tech-base maps. I did a levelset called Murderous Intent that was a first serious foray into Doom mapping (indeed, my fourth, fifth and sixth maps ever made it into that set). It was cramped, badly-paced, bad enemy placement; I learned a lot from it that I was putting into a (now deceased, and will never be released since it was 'a few computers ago' and I don't even have a HDD with it on anymore) sequel, Murderous Intent 2.

Cue 2012; a decade after the fact; and I'm into indie gaming. I want to make my own games, and I figure the Doom engine will take the brunt of the coding ballache if I want to make my own FPS -- which incidentally, I'd want to play pretty Doom-like because I like Doom.

Now, I'm running Windows 7 so simply downloading my old suite of WadEd, WadAuthor and WinTEX seems like the worst fucking idea ever because I don't want to be fucking around just to get tools working; I want in, minimal fuss. Doom Builder 2 it is, then -- and a few levels to get familiar with the tool before I embark on the journey of making my own thing.

And so, I started on what has become the first map of this set. It's a little boxy and basic, but it plays very nicely indeed (especially compared to Murderous "2001 Jay is a sadistic fucker" Intent). And... I kept going for a bit, dug out a couple of old maps (one of which was unreleased, intended for Murderous Intent 1 but didn't really 'fit', because it was much nicer) and now I'm at six.

Enough talk, have some pictures.

1 - AIRFIELD

An opening map with emphasis on pistol play -- I feel the weapon gets vastly overlooked when higher-up weapons are acquired. A bit square and boxy, but it works given the setting.

2 - COOLANT PROCESSING

A slightly-meandering trek through less-square architecture.

3 - INTERIM

Actually an old map of mine from the old DoomCenter's Episode 1 Contest -- I made a few alterations (tightened the ammo balance, changed the end) to make it fit better with these levels.

4 - WASTE

Okay, what little I remembered of Murderous Intent 2 is in this map, mashed together to make something that ended up with multiple routes the original didn't have. Turned out to be a mean techbase map.

5 - THE OVERSEER

A run-around based another old, lost-to-time map of mine.

6 - SINISTER INTENTION

An unreleased map that didn't make it to Murderous Intent, with a lick of spit and polish to make it fit with this level set.

And... that's it for now. Don't mind the CL_RUN stuff up there, I have screenshot bound to SHIFT and I mashed it a bit </professional>.


I also don't know whether to cap this at seven levels (woo, boss level) or keep going; in which case I'm taking a hiatus after the next map as I start generating content for my own game, as mentioned.

One thing though, a couple of testers wouldn't go amiss. Any volunteers? (Ideally purist - I like his style, and think he can get 'in my head' a bit with what I'm trying to do with these maps)

[Memfis]

Omg can't wait for this, looks like a perfect classic style wad. Pls don't stop at seven. :)

[Guest]

Well. I am gonna play the Sinister Intent out of these levels. Nice job. They look pretty damn good.

And as Memfis said, don't stop at seven. 32 is a good number. Works well for Doom 2 mapsets, for some reason. But yeah, 32. No pressure.

[chexwarrior]

Whoo! \o/ Looks great.

[aldiboronti]

This looks very promising indeed. Can't wait to get to grips with it!

[purist]

ComicMischief said:

One thing though, a couple of testers wouldn't go amiss. Any volunteers? (Ideally purist - I like his style, and think he can get 'in my head' a bit with what I'm trying to do with these maps)

I'm flattered. I was already seduced into wanting to play this having seen your screenshots so if I can help you out that's all the better. I certainly recommend have additional playtesters to pick at it from a more technical point of view though.

[Blastfrog]

Looks good so far, as the others have said, but I noticed something that could be improved. I noticed that there's some pink blotches of color on the first screenshot's sky texture. You might want to translate that to a brown color of equivalent brightness.

[ComicMischief]

Purist: If you don't mind firing an email where I can send the WAD, to my inbox, then I'll send it sometime over the weekend if it's okay? I'm about to go out for the night right now.

Sodaholic: It's been noted, and isn't the highest-priority thing on the list but it will be addressed. Thanks, though. :)

[Walter confetti]

looks really interesting...

[Widow]

I would gladly beta test!It looks great!

[Obsidian]

This might be just me, but the MAP05 title sort of makes me think that there should be a boss fight there. Is there? :)

[Mechadon]

These looks pretty damn cool! In particular I like what's going on architecturally in the 2nd and 4th shots. I'll add this on the list of things I'm looking forward to. Good luck :D

[Katamori]

Nice! I agree with Memfis: definitely don't stop at seven! =)

[Memfis]

Here is something interesting for you ComicMischief: a pack of demos of my first playthrough. I've also posted a short review on /idgames.

(decided to bump this thread since your wad didn't appear in "latest files" so hardly anybody got to see it)

[ComicMischief]

Oh yeah, it's in newstuff! I had no idea what had happened -- I saw that it got rejected due to lacking my email address in the .txt file (I really don't like to be bothered by folk) - but I amended it as soon as I knew and reuploaded.

Ah well. GET IT HERE, PEOPLE.

I sorta snuck it out and forgot about this thread. Planned to do more with it, but wanted a bit of 'new project' buzz with new textures and whatnot that wouldn't suit this. I'll take a look at those demos, Memfis. Thanks!

(Fair review, too :D)

[ComicMischief]

I watched those demos, Memfis. Pretty neat.

Spoiler

Seeing you get beaten by MAP04 was no surprise; with that one, my pistol-start testing was based on me thinking "alright, it's impossible - lemme scale it back just the tiniest bit and see if I can do it" over and over as I tested. I was adamant that I'd force a lot of rocket launcher in this map.

It was neat seeing you figure out the teleporter puzzle in MAP06. I had no idea whether it was going to be too annoying, or whether the very subtle clues I'd put in there (as in; from one yellow door to another is probably about 4 warps, yet about double that going back the other way, stuff like that) were going to work. Nice seeing you try to bump-collect the red key, too. :D

Raised a small giggle trying to fist the cybie's ass in MAP07. Heh.

I must give amazing kudos to Purist. Although I only got feedback with two maps, I know what to do (and not to do) for my next mapset; in fact the reason this was released as-is was due to me thinking "awwww, there's a lot to fix. I wanna do something new".

I'll thank again for the review; my favourite bit? "Wad explores unusual gameplay themes", which was entirely my (sinister) intention. ;)

[Memfis]

Spoiler

eh, actually I haven't figured out that puzzle on map06 at all, I was just taking random teleporters and got lucky I guess :P

[purist]

ComicMischief said:

I must give amazing kudos to Purist. Although I only got feedback with two maps, I know what to do (and not to do) for my next mapset; in fact the reason this was released as-is was due to me thinking "awwww, there's a lot to fix. I wanna do something new".

Oh wow it's released. You really didn't have to credit me, I only fedback on 2 maps after all. You caught me at a busy time unfortunately and when I didn't get a response to my notes for MAP02 I used it as an excuse to put testing on the backburner.

I will get around to finishing it sometime though, good luck with the next project.