50 Shades of Graytall (now on idgames!)

[Shotgun Guy]

Alright, here are the screenies.

http://i.imgur.com/3dQQSLU.png
http://i.imgur.com/abmz2qy.png
http://i.imgur.com/VdMHo8K.png
http://i.imgur.com/GEVCQlO.png

[scifista42]

Shotgun Guy said:

Alright, here are the screenies.

Looks interesting, mainly the first 2 shots.

[Varis Alpha]

in case anyone's interested, i have a few more Doom-y tracks i could contribute to the project if there's any interest. the first is a MIDI remix of an existing song, the other is meant to be a sort of boss-theme.

https://dl.dropbox.com/s/dkwa3gsuesoi95k/Eggs%20%28Remix%29.mp3?dl=0

https://dl.dropbox.com/s/3818qsfp1qb1wlp/Die%20You%20Fucking%20Bastard.mp3?dl=0

[Marcaek]

doomhuntress: I wouldn't mind a MIDI of both, actually. I think I may have use for at least one.

Quakis: Sure, not a problem. I won't be doing credits right yet though.

OP updated with a new beta! Hopefully this will be more convenient, but it doesn't necessarily reflect a final maplist(at all, heh).

[Varis Alpha]

alright. should i post the MIDIs in the thread, or send them in a PM?

[Marcaek]

Here is fine, everyone can have a listen and decide if they'd like them for their map that way. I'm thinking of using the first for ezormer's map so far, at least.

[Varis Alpha]

kay then.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/m2lkxw8wqlcyqvq/Eggs%20%28Remix%29.mid?dl=0
https://www.dropbox.com/s/uuph58qn0iropvi/Die%20You%20Fucking%20Bastard.mid?dl=0

[Marcaek]

Alright, I'd like to get a progress report on any currently WIP maps, just to know if everyone making one is in or out or not, and to get a good idea of how I'll be composing the potential final maplist. If you have a map in progress, just a little bit of info is all I need ATM. I'm not ready to cap it off at 11 just yet, so there's still plenty of time left to see how long this wad should be. I don't want to run the gimmick dry, but a lot of the current submissions are pretty damn good so I'm not as convinced that's a huge problem yet and 15-20 is fine too.

[Steve D]

I'm pecking-away at something. With luck, it won't be complete shit. ;D

[Mechadon]

I started my map over because it was getting too big. I'm close to finishing the bare layout for this second attempt, though I've been moving kind of slow.

[Marcaek]

Well, I wouldn't mind a big map if it's a good one. If you think the old layout is worth finishing it's still welcome. Looking forward to any mekmap really :P

[scifista42]

I'm going along with a very simple concept of dark+bright, so maybe I'll finish my map till the end of the year...

[Shotgun Guy]

I have to align textures and add more ammo and health.

[Marcaek]

Just noticed I still had "currently 3 maps are in mostly acceptable state" in the OP, but that's not true anymore heh. The 11 maps in the current beta are accepted. That doesn't mean they're necessarily 100% polished though, submissions can be polished as much as you feel is appropriate on whim or request even after inclusion.

[slowtorturepukechamber]

Marcaek said:

50 Shades of Graytall is a project designed around creating maps with interesting architecture and gameplay despite being limited to a selection of arguably hideous textures.

You must make sure that you use at least one floor sector have a TLITE6_x texture, or some other teleporter-esque texture.

[cannonball]

I am also pecking away at a map for this, who knows when it will be done.

[mouldy]

Here's an update for my map:
http://www.mediafire.com/download/tdmloenfrtkamn3/atmom-dec02.zip

I've included difficulty settings, MP starts and tidied the automap, along with a few other tweaks.

[mouldy]

By the way, I just played through the beta, some really cool design work in these maps, amazing what people manage with the limitations. The maps are pretty fun to play too, although the trial and error gameplay in later ones isn't my cup of tea these days. The Mr Greytall one was unplayable for me due to running out of ammo, to be honest it doesn't look like I'd enjoy it even with plenty, dunno. Too many cybers and archviles. But it looks fantastic. I guessed it was a timeofdeath map, also recognised dobu's and ribbiks map styles in there.

Excellent stuff.

[Mechadon]

Marcaek said:

Well, I wouldn't mind a big map if it's a good one. If you think the old layout is worth finishing it's still welcome. Looking forward to any mekmap really :P

As it turns out, this second attempt is still going to be pretty big :P. Though not quite as big as my initial attempt...either way, hopefully it will be good enough (if I can finish the dumb thing).

Here's a couple of shots:

[joe-ilya]

Sick! (Wo)Man.

[mouldy]

Mechadon said:

Here's a couple of shots:

heh, looking grand. Will you be doing any OCD texture alignment on the red lines?

[Mechadon]

Yea, or at least I will try to. My patience may not hold out long enough, heh. But I'm planning on cleaning up the visuals after the layout/architecture is complete.

[SleepyVelvet]

Now with more souls.

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/56831507/Doom/Not%20Finished/CountTrakula/CountTrakula-prev3.wad

I've only done very little in terms of difficulty settings, only some of the gimmick encounters might have some difficulty setting flags from the first version. It would be good to know if people find particular things annoying or too hard, so I know how to tone the map for HNTR and HMP. There should be enough ammo to kill everything during this stage.

[scifista42]

@NoisyVelvet: No, I still think that the map (played from a pistol start) provides too few resources when the player needs them. I've been running out of ammo for most of the time, and as soon as I've found enough ammo, I was ambushed by an archvile or a horde of high-HP monsters, so that I had too few resources again. If you added about 2 shellboxes and 2 clipboxes and preferably also the SSG and RL to the start, it might have been much more okay. But I admit, I've played rather impatiently and I get that you wanted to encourage exploration. I also still dislike the HOMs as a "feature" of the blue key area (I'm playing with a software renderer).

[mouldy]

NoisyVelvet said:

Now with more souls.

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/56831507/Doom/Not%20Finished/CountTrakula/CountTrakula-prev3.wad

I love this map, just played it UV pistol start and didn't have a problem with ammo. I suspect being such a non-linear thing there is always the risk of picking a route without enough resources, but I was going all over the place and didn't have a problem. Maybe I was lucky. I also knew not to shoot the romero head which makes things easier. I'm fine with the hall of mirrors, its quite mental when you grab the invul as well and try and shoot the archviles, I always end up just running out of there, but I think it works well.

[SleepyVelvet]

scifista42 said:

too few resources when the player needs them.

mouldy said:

picking a route without enough resources, ... archviles, I always end up just running out of there, but I think it works well.

This is good to know. I basically put just enough ammo across the whole map to uv-max it without berserking or SSG-ing stuff or rocket splash damage. I didn't try to focus on making sure the player always has enough ammo at all times though.

It sounds like scifista went down the side lanes and cleared out a lot of the perimeter arachnotrons. One plus of starving ammo here is that it encourages the player to retreat and enter the castle instead of waking up all the flying monsters along the back perimeter at once, but if I really cared about that I would probably change them to teleport-in rather than just have them sit there on ledges - Currently, if they all wake up at once, they will either split-up and roam dispersely, or they will bunch up into a ball based on luck and movement through the level. I know some people enjoy running out of ammo as a sort of forced challenge, but some people don't and prefer it more casually and fun. The blue key room too, I'm not sure if I wanna throw an extra 12 shells and a few rockets in there, it's obviously a tradeoff.

It is also certainly more satisfying to use rockets and shotguns against the cacos and arachnotrons, and players aren't gonna find these until half way through the map. Also, the romero-head archvile fight might be too easy with a rocketlauncher or ssg (for my masochistic tastes). I could either leave the rocket and ssg as they are without adding more, so they are a more worthwhile and satisfying trophy to pick up when you eventually find them; or I can throw an additional ssg and rl at the start in those two hole perches looking into the start canyon thing (while leaving the other two redundantly in-place as set-pieces because the weapons look good as decorations).

I'll leave the decision up to Marcaek so I don't have to think about it.

[TwinBeast]

Looks like a funny project.

[Gez]

Is it actually possible to kill the HOM archviles?

Also, any way to pluck the eyes of the exit? Trying to get 100% items here. :)

[SleepyVelvet]

Gez said:

kill the HOM archviles?

yes. you can also punch them sometimes if they get close enough, or you can do it the easy way and shoot them in the fireblu room when they teleport back to it (the teleport from the initial perch is 2-way)

Gez said:

any way to pluck the eyes of the exit? Trying to get 100% items here. :)

no :(. also, there are 2 blue keys (one gets sealed away after you get onto the conveyor belt and is a decoration). sorry for 100% items people.

[mouldy]

Here's an update of my map with some minor cosmetic fixes
http://www.mediafire.com/download/2r6648zlr8llzyf/atmom-dec10.zip