Stack Domination [beta]

[Acid]

"Stack Domination" is a singleplayer Boom compatible map.

Preface:

It was the biggest scandal of the year; the UAC, Union Aerospace Corporation, a powerhouse in spearheading expeditions on Mars, was revealed to have participated in both human experimentation and illegal nuclear material handling. Not too long after, governmental pressure and active lobbyists have crippled the once massive enterprise - the dozens of bases and facilities have been claimed and refurbished by the government workers despite the demonic presence.

---

Thirty-five years later and the ancient UAC's existence remains solely in childrens' textbooks and online archives, yet the illegal shipments of nuclear sludge have continued to thrive. Tasked with exploring one of the most intricate extensions of the old UAC complexes, the old processing station demonstrated signs of cultist activities; pipes are interwoven around libraries of magical jargon. At this point, the government couldn't care less: the outpost is far from civilization and doesn't seem to contain any valuables. As per their declaration of humanities and whatnot, they've fulfilled their obligation to "claim" this base with one lone marine.

Difficulty: Medium-high
Monster Count: 750~
Build Time: 1 month and a week
Length: 30:00 approximately

Now on idGames:
http://www.doomworld.com/idgames/?id=17300

Changes (b3):
-monster changes
-lowered ammo counts in later parts of map

Notes: Save often :) Sorry for the bad narrative. I don't write this kind of stuff.

I'm open to all criticism, and I'm willing to largely revamp the map to make it the best experience possible. Thanks for reading and have fun!

[Memfis]

There were some quite noticeable slime trails, one imp was stuck on a step or something and one hell knight scratched me from his illusio-pit because I missed some trigger line I guess. But I didn't take screenshots. :\ However, you can see them on this demo if you're bored.

[Ribbiks]

interesting map, here's a demo: http://www.mediafire.com/?vcijw2dn8c9c2jw

I made it to the BK room, but couldn't figure out how to get out, maybe I broke something?

reminds me a bit of memfis' maps, some nonlinearity, largely stock textured, low monster count but still relatively difficult, good stuff. I like the ammo starvation throughout, encourages trying to infight as much as possible. One negative side effect of that though is that often times it's more sensible (in a survivalist sense) to play tediously in order to conserve resources. Like with those 2 useless archviles, I think I ended up non-berserk punching them to death because shells/bullets were so scarce.

[Acid]

Memfis said:

There were some quite noticeable slime trails, one imp was stuck on a step or something and one hell knight scratched me from his illusio-pit because I missed some trigger line I guess. But I didn't take screenshots. :\ However, you can see them on this demo if you're bored.

Thanks for the demo! I noticed the areas with the slime trails. It was funny and annoying at the same time watching you struggle to get the soulsphere by strafing. It was a simple lift via the support texture :P I forgot to tag the opposite side's linedef for the HK, so thanks for that reminder. It was definitely interesting to see some FDA's. The stuck imp was definitely a glitch, but not on the map building end. Something accidentally pushed that imp to the corner to get stuck

Ribbiks said:

interesting map, here's a demo: http://www.mediafire.com/?vcijw2dn8c9c2jw

I made it to the BK room, but couldn't figure out how to get out, maybe I broke something?

reminds me a bit of memfis' maps, some nonlinearity, largely stock textured, low monster count but still relatively difficult, good stuff. I like the ammo starvation throughout, encourages trying to infight as much as possible. One negative side effect of that though is that often times it's more sensible (in a survivalist sense) to play tediously in order to conserve resources. Like with those 2 useless archviles, I think I ended up non-berserk punching them to death because shells/bullets were so scarce.

Thank you for the notes. I'm going to move the monster positioning around a bit. The blue key room:

Hitting switches on both sides should lower the metal gates, which would let you ride the lift. Getting the blue key releases a timed door that should unlock the metal bars from the way in which you came. You took alot shorter than I thought you would to kill viles in the room, which caused you to wait excessively on a "broken" door. I urge you to play past the blue key section because that's where the hard part comes.

You also saved alot more ammo than I thought possible in those moments, so kudos to you. Thanks for the demo. I've updated the OP with a new link:

-removed 2 viles @ RL and Red key sewers
-shortened blue key door wait time
-fixed random things here and there

[gggmork]

Seems like a map that'd be fun to max fast. Here's an fda (failed naturally):
http://filesmelt.com/dl/stackdomination-ggg-fda.lmp

[Memfis]

I noticed that you set the music to D_STALKS via MAPINFO but that doesn't work in classic ports of course. Maybe add a DEHACKED lump as well to change the music?

[40oz]

can dehacked do that?

Also awesome looking screenshots, will play today.

[Gez]

40oz said:

can dehacked do that?

Yep. It's used in Plutonia 2 for example, where for instance instead of D_RUNNIN, MAP01 plays D_JP_PYR IIRC.

[mouldy]

Looks interesting, here's my first attempt:
http://www.mediafire.com/download/p4nlppvpx495nt9/stackdom-mouldy.lmp
I don't think I got very far, have to be more ammo conservative on my next go.

Right, played it properly now, very entertaining. Ammo is pretty tight at the start but gets more abundant later on, lots of killing and nice big spaces to do it in. Very cool. The hardest bit was the blue key battle, found it a bit of a roll-of-the-dice with so many archviles at once. Nothing a few hundred saves can't handle though.

[Acid]

mouldy said:

Looks interesting, here's my first attempt:
http://www.mediafire.com/download/p4nlppvpx495nt9/stackdom-mouldy.lmp
I don't think I got very far, have to be more ammo conservative on my next go.

Right, played it properly now, very entertaining. Ammo is pretty tight at the start but gets more abundant later on, lots of killing and nice big spaces to do it in. Very cool. The hardest bit was the blue key battle, found it a bit of a roll-of-the-dice with so many archviles at once. Nothing a few hundred saves can't handle though.

Thanks for the demo! It was interesting to see how you skipped the chainsaw/armor/spectre area completely, which might have helped with saving health later on. The BK trap is agreeably somewhat luck based. It seems that you've used the power of brute saving rather than being lucky like Ribbiks who passed it with flying colours on his first try.

[mouldy]

BloodyAcid said:

It was interesting to see how you skipped the chainsaw/armor/spectre area completely, which might have helped with saving health later on.

Ah yeah, I didn't have the ammo to deal with all those spectres at the time, and forgot to go back for it later. Doh

[Acid]

Download b3

Changes (b3):
-monster changes
-lowered ammo counts in later parts of map

Nothing worth downloading if you've already played it though.

[Demon of the Well]

I tried beta 3. First off, let me thank you for taking the time to write that story text to go along with your map. It's a small thing, but I think it adds a lot to single-map experiences, sort of helps to establish a mood. Hardly needs to be fine literature, either.

Here is my FDA (PrBooM+ with no specific complevel set, so I do see a few Boomisms, mainly siamese monsters around the blue key fight). I make it a little ways past the blue bars, and am then killed by being brash and getting flushed forward into mass-formation-teleporting weaklings. Although I can't see others' FDAs due to versional changes, from reading the comments here I reckon I had the same problem Ribbiks did in the blue key room, so I wander around forlornly in there for a few minutes looking for a switch or something I missed, until I stop to look at the door shields for a moment and suddenly find they've raised for no apparent reason. I also knew not to be too cavalier with ammo from reading some of the comments here, which explains some of my plodding infight-heavy tactics.

I did have a good time, and I'll play all the way through later tonight. For now, my main suggestions for improvement are that I think a lot of the larger spaces could benefit aesthetically by having a little more light/shadow contrast (doesn't need to be very pronounced), and I reckon you might tweak the stairs/ceilings up to the switch platforms in the blue key battle to make it easier for the monsters that spawn in to the pools to come up them. When I played I had a revenant or two come up to greet me, but most of the riffraff ended up clustering around the foot of the stairs. Oh, and I agree with Memfis, a music replacement that will work in any old port would also be much appreciated (the 'Pause' at the start of the demo is me changing tunes).

[Acid]

Woah, I missed this comment. Thank you Demon of the Well for the demo, playthrough and demo. I've modified the blue key area very slightly by adding an alternate teleport root for the monsters directly onto the platform (1/4 chance about, I reckon). I've also (again) shortened the wait time on the blue key doors. Lastly, I turned up the contrasting a bit in the blue key area, as well as in little sections here and there. Besides, most of the eyecandy is found in the latter half of the map ;)

From watching your demo, I can see that the map wasn't much of a challenge for you, seeing as you had overstocked on both ammo and health. Like Ribbiks, your fight with the viles was incredibly short D:

Please look forward to an idGames link.

edit: I added a dehacked lump too :) (Thanks PL2)

[Acid]

Now on idGames:
http://www.doomworld.com/idgames/?id=17300