Death's Design - 6 Map Demo [Limit Removing]

[PRIMEVAL]

Some simple and easy maps made for Limit Removing ports (screenshots done in QZDoom), featuring new textures, some new sprites, and new sounds. The new sprites and sounds may be overwritten by gameplay mods, which will risk the "new" enemy type (not introduced in the first 6 maps) to be replaced with something not intended.

Currently the first 6 maps are done, with Map07 and some others started but not really worthy of anything. There are no goals set to how many maps this will consist of, I am just mapping as I get inspiration and motivation between music sessions.

Updated: 2/11/2021
Download (DropBox)

Edited February 12, 2021 by PRIMEVAL : Screenshot duties.

[gggmork]

fdas, I suck at fdas so don't bother watching:
http://speedy.sh/N5PYr/deathsdesign-fda-ggg.zip

They're ok. 3 had a bug where I couldn't open some door so was stuck.1 is harder/easier depending on route.

[Memfis]

Cute starter maps, nothing really wrong with them. And yes, you can get stuck on map03 in the secret rooms with shotgunners. The problem here is that doomguy always tries to activate the closest trigger linedef to him when you press "use". And the teleporters there are too close to the doors so doomguy tries to activate them instead of the doors even though pressing teleporter lines makes no sense. Probably works fine in ZDoom but not in vanilla, etc. Boom invented "Passthru" lines to fix problems like this: when that flag is set, trigger lines allow you to press "through" them.

Map01 music reminded me of "Cowboys from Hell" by Pantera, intentional? :)

[PRIMEVAL]

Guess I'll have to fix those secrets... whoops.

Map01 music was inspired by Pantera, actually. It was also the first song I ever made for a Doom map (unfortunately the project itself was canceled).

Thank you for the feedback! First post's download link has been updated with a fixed version.

[Katamori]

Well THIS is why I don't consider you as a beginner mapper :P

Looks damn hot, even if nothing any special. Not anyone can be as extreme at map creating as me.

Can't wait for trying the full version!

[Memfis]

GJ, works fine now. By the way you could use faster moving floors for some traps. Like on map01 when you press some switch and four pinkies start lowering, but you can hit them several times before they even come down. Action 71 "S1 Floor Lower to 8 above Highest Floor" is very fast actually even though the description doesn't mention that, so you could use it here and maybe with the SSG revenants on map03 too (that will require some editing though since the highest floor there are these crates).

[PRIMEVAL]

Huh, didn't know that Action 71 was fast moving. Definitely will make some changes there, thanks! Map03 Revenant trap will be a challenge hehe

Katamori, thank you for the kind words x)

[Edit] Updated download link with said fixes.

[scifista42]

PrBoom-plus -complevel 2 FDAs: http://filesmelt.com/dl/dddemos.zip

Warning: I'm a bad keyboarder player who doesn't record demos often. On MAP02 I spend a lot of time trying to get a secret, unsuccessfully (I've probably overlooked something really obvious). On MAP03 I even die, two times, and the demo turns into my desperate attempt at survival.

I like the simple design, fun to play and explore. MAP02 nicely introduces spectres in a non-annoying way, yet appropriately in darkness. The minor issue I have with MAP03 is the blue-yellow trimmed door which isn't locked. I know how you meant it, but I'd recommend better not do this. A couple passageways in MAP03 look a little bland, those with TEKGREN mostly. Also that map noticeably pays (little) tributes to IWAD levels, sometimes it's cool but every experienced player is eager for original design. I think you're aware of these well, too. Overally pretty good job!

It also can't be wrong if I tell you here that I really like your music tracks. ;)

[C30N9]

I wouldn't believe the "new mapper" part. The 3 maps are pretty great, and detail is just right enough for vanilla. Of course it's not perfect, but I didn't bother looking for bad things, forgive me.

However, I must tell you that sometimes you shouldn't treat textures as wallpapers only. Look at this picture:



The star tan texture here is cut.



The "TEKGREEN" texture is also cut above.

These may not look very bad here, but it can be really hideous for other "tile"-based textures such as "METAL2" (and other similar metal textures) and bricks. You don't have always to follow these rules, but whenever you can replace the texture to avoid cut textures and it doesn't ruin the theme much, do it.

Also, the music didn't play correctly in the 3 maps. Ask the others if they had the same problem.

[plums]

FDAs for the old version of the wad, if it still exists.
http://www.doomworld.com/vb/attachment.php?postid=1251071

I liked them, maps 1 and 2 were pretty simple but fun tekbase stuff, map 3 I found a lot harder especially before I knew where to go. Also had the stuck secret problem but I guess you fixed it.

In Map01 I found it a bit weird that a secret opens up an area with a green armour, that has a switch that gives access to the blue armour.

What program do you use to make music? It doesn't play right in Chocolate Doom under OPL emulation, which is a known problem with some MIDIs.

C30N9 said:

Also, the music didn't play correctly in the 3 maps. Ask the others if they had the same problem.

What port were you using? Was it OPL or MIDI playback?

[PRIMEVAL]

I use Cakewalk Pro Audio 9 for my MIDI compositions. I know you have to convert it to MUS or something for Chocolate Doom OPL playback but I don't know how to do that.

I may change that Map01 secret then, somehow it completely slipped my mind about the armor. A bit redundant lol.

I'm still new to mapping, but I've practiced before releasing anything like this to the public. I'm a seasoned newbie? Also had experience with Unreal mapping in the past.

I'll think of ways to fix up the wallpaper usage and other nitpicks.

Also, thanks for the kind words on the music x) Map02 has a track both Jimmy and I worked on.

[plums]

PRIMEVAL said:

I use Cakewalk Pro Audio 9 for my MIDI compositions. I know you have to convert it to MUS or something for Chocolate Doom OPL playback but I don't know how to do that.

Thanks, I'll pass that info along. You shouldn't have to convert to MUS, most MIDIs play fine in Chocolate Doom, even with OPL emulation. But there are some playback bugs apparently.

I also did like the music a lot, well done there.

[Katamori]

C30N9 said:

These may not look very bad here, but it can be really hideous for other "tile"-based textures such as "METAL2" (and other similar metal textures) and bricks.

Damn, add a +1 system for vBulletin, I wanna "like" the shit out of this statement!

I'd hit my head into the wall every times I see cutting tile textures...

[plums]

Hey PRIMEVAL, out curiosity is it possible for you to save Type 1 MIDIs with Cakewalk? Would you be able to post one of your songs in Type 1 if so?

[PRIMEVAL]

plums said:

Hey PRIMEVAL, out curiosity is it possible for you to save Type 1 MIDIs with Cakewalk? Would you be able to post one of your songs in Type 1 if so?

I believe the tracks should already be Type 1 in the WAD.

[plums]

Sekaiju says they're all Type 0 and asks me if I want to convert them when I load them. If you're sure, I'll try them in another program.

My apologies, only D_RUNNIN and D_DM2TTL are Type 0, the rest seem to be Type 1.

Thanks for responding anyhow. Looking forward to more maps.

[PRIMEVAL]

Weird, that's the MIDI type I go to when I save it. I redid a few of them here:

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/62445669/IntermissionType1.mid
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/62445669/Map02type1.mid
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/62445669/Map03type1.mid

I currently don't have the others on-hand.



EDIT
Okay, those 2 you mentioned I can believe are Type 0. RUNNIN is really old and I didn't know much about MIDI format back then. The other one was probably just a rushed job.

[PRIMEVAL]

Link updated, Map04 is completable but no difficulty settings set. A couple new textures and flats added, some stuff changed in Maps 01-03, but not much... Yeah, minor update. Map05 started and completable but not even balanced.

[SFoZ911]

Played the first 3 levels, really liked the 2nd one.
I didn't like the fact that you get a blue armor so easily on the first level, it can be replaced with green armor..
some good polish job could be apply to all of the maps, adding decorative things and maybe try to make the maps a bit more "alive".

I'm working on a mapset myself and its nice to see that i'm not the only one. other than that, keep up the good work.

[PRIMEVAL]

SFoZ911 said:

Played the first 3 levels, really liked the 2nd one.
I didn't like the fact that you get a blue armor so easily on the first level, it can be replaced with green armor..
some good polish job could be apply to all of the maps, adding decorative things and maybe try to make the maps a bit more "alive".

I'm working on a mapset myself and its nice to see that i'm not the only one. other than that, keep up the good work.

I'll think of something for the first map.

Originally these maps started out as speedmaps, so detail wasn't a priority. But I'm gonna be revisiting them and adding more :)

Thank you for the feedback! And good luck with your own project!

[PRIMEVAL]

Double post... D:

Link updated again, Map01's Blue Armor was replaced with something a bit more useful.

[Keyboard_Doomer]

In -complevel 2 map05 has this weird bug I've seen several times before and don't know what causes it. The map completely breaks after you try to open one of the 2 doors near start that each have a chaingunner behind them. In boom compability the doors cannot be opened preventing the bug from happening, however I assume you are supposed to go inside since there is a couple of rockets in each door.

Demo showing the bug recorded with GLBoom+ 2.5.1.4 -complevel 2:

http://www.sendspace.com/file/ia8g4a

Chocolate Doom crashes if I try to run any map from this version of the wad.

[Memfis]

Haven't looked at the new maps yet but it must be a SR door with a zero tag then (it tries to open ALL non-tagged sectors).
In prboom-plus there is a compatibility option called "apply zero tagged actions locally" or something like that which fixes such bugs but you have to play with complevel -1 for it to work and it probably won't work while recording a demo.

[PRIMEVAL]

Huh, odd... When I get the chance I'll take a look at what the problem may be. Thank you!

[PRIMEVAL]

Fixed the SR doors in Map05. Still have to fix the balancing for one difficulty (let alone all 3 difficulties) in Map05. Map04 still needs difficulty settings fixed. Still unsure why it's not working in Chocolate Doom. I know it did before I added textures, but they've been converted and added to TEXTURE1 properly.

Also added details in a few areas in Map01-04 and changed up Map02's Once Only secret to something a bit more unique.

Yeah, extremely minor update. Heh.

[PRIMEVAL]

MULTI-POST!

Now playable in Chocolate Doom. Thanks to waverider for pointing out the issue. Music doesn't play correctly in OPL, I hope to fix that in the future, but otherwise it's playable in Chocolate.

[theJF]

Here's an FDA. HMP, cl2.

By map 3 my brain abandons me; The last half of this demo is basically just me being dumb. But I did enjoy it and will come back to it.

[PRIMEVAL]

Bump!

Update with 6 maps. Complete until fixes and updates are needed. I'm still somewhat aiming for a Vanilla / Chocolate compatibility but it may go into Limit Removing. It has a DEHACKED lump but I'm not fluent with it so it may not be 100% correct. Comments, criticisms, complaints, flames, nitpickings are welcome and appreciated.

[Deadwing]

I've played only the first three maps. Looks great so far, loved the doom 1 style. New sprites are quite cool, but the levels itself are very oldschool, which created an interesting contrast. I tried playing map 3 but died several times. I'll try it again later and record some FDA's. Still, I think a green armor would help a lot navigating in map 03, since it has lots of hitscanners and your mapping style focus on larger rooms (which makes hitscanners more powerful). Also, the door that leads to the outdoor area could've been "D1 Open Stay (fast)", IMO. Since they're two groups of hitscanners in the rooms beside, the player is encouraged to stay in the door chokepoint to avoid taking damage, where the door will be closing all the time and make things more annoying hehe

[PRIMEVAL]

Deadwing said:

I've played only the first three maps. Looks great so far, loved the doom 1 style. New sprites are quite cool, but the levels itself are very oldschool, which created an interesting contrast. I tried playing map 3 but died several times. I'll try it again later and record some FDA's. Still, I think a green armor would help a lot navigating in map 03, since it has lots of hitscanners and your mapping style focus on larger rooms (which makes hitscanners more powerful). Also, the door that leads to the outdoor area could've been "D1 Open Stay (fast)", IMO. Since they're two groups of hitscanners in the rooms beside, the player is encouraged to stay in the door chokepoint to avoid taking damage, where the door will be closing all the time and make things more annoying hehe

Duly noted!
I may have gone a bit overboard with the new sprites. I mostly just wanted a pistol zombie (the assault rifle bothered me as he used it as a pistol) and a new Floor Lamp sprite, heh. One thing lead to another...