[RELEASED] Gridlock - A community project (maps aligned to the 64 units grid)

[The_SloVinator]

It's really turning off seeing a slaughter map in the compilation of your usual decent challenging maps. Especially being in the middle of the megawad.

I personally like a decent challenge, not spamming BFG & rockets on hordes of revenants & archviles you can't hit.

[FractalXX]

Voltcom9 said:

These are some interesting suggestions. I integrated a couple of these and "tuned-up" the map a wee bit. For some reason this map refuses to load in PRBoom but works fine in GZDoom. The original download link has been updated.

Also, if it's going to be the first secret level (MAP31), then include another secret exit to the super secret level (MAP32). Dinosaur Foot would fit in as a super secret level the most, wouldn't it? Quite hard and unusual from what I see.

But that's just an idea.

[Beed28]

Aww, I was having a brilliant idea for one of the secret maps.

In it, all the vertices would be aligned to a 128 grid. No exceptions.

[Nevander]

There could always be 3 secret maps, with the final map on MAP29.

OR

30 maps + 3 secret maps = 33 maps.

[bioshockfan90]

-post removed due to stupidity-

EDIT 2: I fixed it! It was a stupid sound-block line error. Yeah, this shouldn't happen unless you don't shoot now. I feel dumb.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/9gjpgfs6jyggb4x/64x64.wad?dl=0

[Royal_Sir]

I'm working on a new map, somewhere between or after techbase-ish. The main theme is going to be trenches.

No screenshots yet.

[Nevander]

Little info update on my map:
- Name: "Trials of Iniquity"
- MIDI: "Octarine" by Jimmy (30-in-30 3) (so make sure this MIDI isn't chosen for a map with no custom MIDI yet, or let me know if it's already in use)
- Theme: Lovecraftian/Quake/Heretic style

I hope to be done with the first version sometime this coming weekend. There's a lot of things I want to do and a lot of detail I plan to get out of this 64 grid restriction.

There's also going to be a lot of enemies. A lot. But don't worry... you're going to be well stocked.

[The_SloVinator]

I think a slaughter map would fit perfectly for map slot 28 or 29, now that I think about it.

[FractalXX]

Beed28 said:

Aww, I was having a brilliant idea for one of the secret maps.

In it, all the vertices would be aligned to a 128 grid. No exceptions.

That's an even better idea, actually. Would it be your map?

[joe-ilya]

Can I make a techbase map? If so, give me a week and I'll finish it.

[FractalXX]

joe-ilya said:

Can I make a techbase map? If so, give me a week and I'll finish it.

Of course. We're still far from filling in the slots.
We need techbases, too, to keep up the balance.

[The_SloVinator]

Ok. So here are my thoughts so far.

Map 04 needs an item placement fixed.

And when I beaten map 16, I didn't enter map 17 but rather 16 again.

Not sure what's up with that.

[Nevander]

So my next map is becoming bigger than originally expected, so it's going to take me a bit longer to finish.

On the upside, there will be practically zero backtracking but not too linear at the same time. There will be two paths you can take from the start, and both paths eventually converge to the end, and once you grab the final key you can go straight to the exit.

It's designed so that you go to either key A or B first, then once you have both key A and B, you go to the final area and get key C then exit the level.

Depending on my schedule next week, I should be able to get it finished by next weekend. In the meantime, there's still plenty to be done as far as the current test WAD goes; polish and whatnot.

You guys are gonna love this map. /end gloat

[FractalXX]

Soldier993 said:

Ok. So here are my thoughts so far.

Map 04 needs an item placement fixed.

And when I beaten map 16, I didn't enter map 17 but rather 16 again.

Not sure what's up with that.

I assume that's just a mistyping in the MAPINFO lump, I'll fix it in the next update.

[baja blast rd.]

map21: This one starts out fine with the first two encounters (teleporting weaklings, cyber + AV + hordes), but after that there is quite a stretch of tediousness. The revenants are basically non-threatening in such an open space. Then there are more non-threatening revenants on the cliff to kill. Then two spider masterminds warp in but they are completely ineffective behind the barons, which kill them. The caco encounter after that is more interesting but it's somewhat trivial to BFG spam the imps and barons, and then hold down fire with the RL against the dozens of cacos as they try to come into the hallway. After that there are more perched revenants to kill, again non-threatening, with some viles that are harmless. The encounter after that now is somewhat RNG-dependent, because you can be targeted by archviles immediately with nowhere to hide, but after you escape it quickly shifts into a semi-cleanup stage, where cyber rockets are still a threat but you mostly have to kill a lot of non-threatening monsters.

I took this picture -- http://i.imgur.com/r1lsl24.png -- and then started writing this post, with the game still running unpaused. Luckily the cybers got rid of all of them for me.

Now I released the viles, luckily survived thanks to the megasphere. Now the sky is full of pain elementals, which are basically nothing but time sinks in this environment.

[The_SloVinator]

rdwpa said:

map21: This one starts out fine with the first two encounters (teleporting weaklings, cyber + AV + hordes), but after that there is quite a stretch of tediousness. The revenants are basically non-threatening in such an open space. Then there are more non-threatening revenants on the cliff to kill. Then two spider masterminds warp in but they are completely ineffective behind the barons, which kill them. The caco encounter after that is more interesting but it's somewhat trivial to BFG spam the imps and barons, and then hold down fire with the RL against the dozens of cacos as they try to come into the hallway. After that there are more perched revenants to kill, again non-threatening, with some viles that are harmless. The encounter after that now is somewhat RNG-dependent, because you can be targeted by archviles immediately with nowhere to hide, but after you escape it quickly shifts into a semi-cleanup stage, where cyber rockets are still a threat but you mostly have to kill a lot of non-threatening monsters.

I took this picture -- http://i.imgur.com/r1lsl24.png -- and then started writing this post, with the game still running unpaused. Luckily the cybers got rid of all of them for me.

Now I released the viles, luckily survived thanks to the megasphere. Now the sky is full of pain elementals, which are basically nothing but time sinks in this environment.

This is why I dislike slaughter maps. They are either frustrating or tediously boring.

[baja blast rd.]

Well, I like them in general. :)

[Nevander]

rdwpa said:

Well, I like them in general. :)

You're gonna love my next map then. Speaking of which, the layout is almost done (which is always the most tedious part of mapping for me; details, thing placement, and testing is the easy part).

[Royal_Sir]

I'm having a bit of a texture problem with Retrofit.



The door textures are offset in the compilation version, and so is the switch, which uses the wrong texture anyway. However, in my standalone level version, the problems do not exist.



Both levels are the same, yet have a texture discrepancy. And I can't seem to fix it.

[baja blast rd.]

Those specific problems show up when sixtyfour.wad is later in the load order than cc4-tex. Sixtyfour.wad overrides the correct cc4-tex textures because it has (incomplete) Textures1 and Pnames lumps for some reason.

[FractalXX]

rdwpa said:

Those specific problems show up when sixtyfour.wad is later in the load order than cc4-tex. Sixtyfour.wad overrides the correct cc4-tex textures because it has (incomplete) Textures1 and Pnames lumps for some reason.

I'm working on a fix.
The only problem with this is that I can't reproduce this issue, even in prBoom/zDoom/GZDoom, or whatsoever. I tested it on almost everything.

EDIT: Nevermind, I found it.
Merging the wads would solve the problem, though.

EDIT2: Fixed by merging the wad with cc4-tex and cleaning up the PNAMES, and TEXTURE1 lumps. Download available.

[doom2day]

rdwpa said:

map18: Start scenario was good. In the blue key area, you should hand out the rocket launcher for all those cacos -- the SSG gets rid of them too slowly, and that scenario is not so threatening anyway. I tried to ditch them altogether, but they managed to clump at the door and fire at me while I was dealing with the imps behind the blue door, so I had to fight them.

I moved the RL to the blue key room, threw in a few rockets, and added 4 revenants to go with the cacodemons + lost souls. I also marked the green armor as the sole secret in the map.

rdwpa said:

The steps there could use monster-blocking lines too -- imps can get knocked off while still alive, and then they have to be sought out and killed, because they can scratch you from below.

I didn't encounter that in my testing but you did bring up a good point. I marked the pillars as monster blocking so the imps won't slide away.

rdwpa said:

I couldn't progress past this point because of a ZDoomism in the form of a zero-tagged SR lift (which has the RL). Make sure to test Boom-format maps in prBoom+ -complevel 9.

I totally missed that, I went and tested it in prboom and also took some screenshots.
http://imgur.com/gallery/aY4Y2

Link:
https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B6h9iaeruLvETDIyMGE3UGU4c00

[Nevander]

Another little update: my next map is about 70% done. Got the layout all planned now and just working on actually building the remainder of the map. It's a semi-symmetrical map so once I do one half the other is much quicker. As far as total enemies go, you can expect about 500 or so. :D

[FractalXX]

doom2day said:

I moved the RL to the blue key room, threw in a few rockets, and added 4 revenants to go with the cacodemons + lost souls. I also marked the green armor as the sole secret in the map.

I didn't encounter that in my testing but you did bring up a good point. I marked the pillars as monster blocking so the imps won't slide away.
I totally missed that, I went and tested it in prboom and also took some screenshots.
http://imgur.com/gallery/aY4Y2

Link:
https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B6h9iaeruLvETDIyMGE3UGU4c00

Updated wad with it, will upload when more maps come.

Nevander said:

Another little update: my next map is about 70% done. Got the layout all planned now and just working on actually building the remainder of the map. It's a semi-symmetrical map so once I do one half the other is much quicker. As far as total enemies go, you can expect about 500 or so. :D

I'll put it in the wad when it's done. Notify me if you want music for it.

[Walter confetti]

MAP03 sky texture is missing, played the last version of the megawad on OP

[joe-ilya]

I've finished my huge layout, now onto thing placement. It's approximately 6000x8000.

[mArt1And00m3r11339]

joe-ilya said:

http://i.imgur.com/SsV4Qw7.png

I've finished my huge layout, now onto thing placement. It's approximately 6000x8000.

Do you have a download link to the file? I would like to try it out.

[scifista42]

Joe-ilya said "I've finished my huge layout, now onto thing placement.", implying that the map has unfinished thing placement and thus isn't ready to be playable.

[mArt1And00m3r11339]

scifista42 said:

Joe-ilya said "I've finished my huge layout, now onto thing placement.", implying that the map has unfinished thing placement and thus isn't ready to be playable.

Then in that case, I meant that after he gets done placing the things on the level and then provide the download link.

[Royal_Sir]

Retrofit v4:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/0428dxts2q6vxa9/Retrofitv4.wad?dl=0

-Fixed more texture errors.
-Blue Key Room should be slightly easier now. Since this is going to be a starting map and that's where most of my deaths have been, this should help tone down the overall difficulty a bit.
-Repopulation area after Yellow Key looks a little better.
-Entryway left door now is a Stay Open door. (It's not obvious, but you've been able to open that door on both sides, can be rewarding to players)
-Fixed a rulebreaking sector that had vertices on the 32 grid (whoops)

Please let me know about the difficulty changes, and whether I should revert to last version or keep it the way it is. The previous difficulty in the last version was harder, but now doesn't seem as whelming.

EDIT:

How would you feel about gimmick maps in the compilation? I'm in the middle of a map where there is a lot of open area and chaingunners, with solace being in sunken trenches and buildings.