Earth On Hell my new 8 level wad

[TheNerdTurtle2]

In July of last year I left the forums because I got a job and a girlfriend but I was in the middle of a 16 level wad I had been working on for 3-4 months, however it kinda sat and rotted away on my computer until I just got back into Doom. Basically I cut out all the "bad" and unfinished levels and here we are, a 8 level Doom 2 wad. It has custom music and textures and is completely vanilla. I personally like MAP07 the most but I want to hear what you guys think, if for no other reason play it for Memfis's 2 maps (MAP03 and MAP09). Thanks for the support and help during this WAD and please enjoy it and give me feedback

EDIT: I forgot to mention MAP31 was supposed to be a secret level but I never implemented it, it's a pretty lets say hectic level

https://www.dropbox.com/s/i1drlp0d2zj0zwf/EARTHONHELLV8.zip?dl=0



MORE:

Spoiler

[TheNerdTurtle2]

I uploaded more screenies :) this is my hardest work and I'd really like feedback

[schmerr]

Looks interesting. Not home, review-type-thing to come later.

[Benjogami]

Here are complevel 2 skill 4 FDAs for maps 1 through 3: https://www.dropbox.com/s/dj2jfjwlqi3t4px/earthonhellv8_maps1to3_benjogami_fdas.zip?dl=1

I'll definitely check out the rest at some point. I had a lot of fun with the barrels. :D

I'm having trouble mustering some more specific feedback. Some of the switch sequences seemed a bit convoluted/arbitrary, and some of the texturing/detailing/angles were bland (esp. map 1). Some of the secrets were pretty obvious, but those tend to be the only kind I can find, so... thanks. :)

Hopefully the demos help!

[TheNerdTurtle2]

DEMO1:
I see what you mean for the switches I'll be sure to fix that when I update this thanks! And MAP01 has 4 secrets and only one is wall humping too bad you didn't find any of them :P

DEMO2:
This one was a lot of fun to watch and it makes me want to scream where the one secret is haha, also did you find the flow of this level to be good? I couldn't tell if you got frustrated

DEMO3:
This was Memfis's level with a few tweaks from me. I loved your barrel play with the revenant it made me laugh

Thanks for the demos they were a lot of fun :)

[baja blast rd.]

Some pre-sleep FDAs for the first three maps. I kind of remember the Memfis level, noticed quite a few changes though. Did he give permission, btw (not that I'm the wad police :p)?

http://www.mediafire.com/download/mkiwc2a45yvxfyy/eohv8_part1_rdwpa_fdas.rar

[TheNerdTurtle2]

rdwpa said:

Some pre-sleep FDAs for the first three maps. I kind of remember the Memfis level, noticed quite a few changes though. Did he give permission, btw (not that I'm the wad police :p)?

http://www.mediafire.com/download/mkiwc2a45yvxfyy/eohv8_part1_rdwpa_fdas.rar

Hahaha of course! I don't steal maps, I actually don't remember if I asked for the map or if he had an extra one he gave to me but yeah I had permission, and the other Memfis level was actually a joint map between us in some kind of map making contest or compilation

[TheNerdTurtle2]

So I know that this has nothing to do with anything but I never knew Memfis left.. And I went to PM him and it was blocked then I ran across this page:

https://www.doomworld.com/vb/blogs/85350-is-there-a-way-to-delete-or-block-an-account/

It's kinda sad to see him go but even worse he acted like that, I'm gonna miss his maps

[AD_79]

TheNerdTurtle2 said:

So I know that this has nothing to do with anything but I never knew Memfis left

He's back on the forums as "kuchitsu".

[TheNerdTurtle2]

AD_79 said:

He's back on the forums as "kuchitsu".

Awesome :) I guess not enough self control, Doom is too good

[Benjogami]

TheNerdTurtle2 said:

DEMO2:
This one was a lot of fun to watch and it makes me want to scream where the one secret is haha, also did you find the flow of this level to be good? I couldn't tell if you got frustrated

I didn't get frustrated, but there were a couple moments where I wasn't sure what the switches did. But finding the thing that opened wasn't too bad since the level was small and there were monster closets to keep it interesting.

[TheNerdTurtle2]

Yeah that's what I wanted it to be like, I like the before and after of the sewer and how it opens up

[Benjogami]

Here are complevel 2 skill 4 FDAs for maps 4 to 6: https://www.dropbox.com/s/ntnhfpvojyzhql3/earthonhellv8_maps4to6_benjogami_fdas.zip?dl=1

I can feel the maps ratcheting up in difficulty, so that's cool. Some really close calls on 4 and 5, and finally a death on 6 (a really sloppy opening, and then: panic!!!). I'm digging the compact, linear style in general, but the changeup to a more open exploratory map 6 was refreshing and well done.

I especially liked the opening sequence of map 4, where there wasn't quite enough ammo to deal with the guys, but enough room to go find some. Having literally 0 ammo vs the shotgun guys was pretty painful, but I feel like that was the result of my own poor choices :P

[TheNerdTurtle2]

Benjogami said:

Here are complevel 2 skill 4 FDAs for maps 4 to 6: https://www.dropbox.com/s/ntnhfpvojyzhql3/earthonhellv8_maps4to6_benjogami_fdas.zip?dl=1

I can feel the maps ratcheting up in difficulty, so that's cool. Some really close calls on 4 and 5, and finally a death on 6 (a really sloppy opening, and then: panic!!!). I'm digging the compact, linear style in general, but the changeup to a more open exploratory map 6 was refreshing and well done.

I especially liked the opening sequence of map 4, where there wasn't quite enough ammo to deal with the guys, but enough room to go find some. Having literally 0 ammo vs the shotgun guys was pretty painful, but I feel like that was the result of my own poor choices :P

Thanks :) makes me happy you're enjoying this and I love watching your demos, the punching of the sargents was funny to say the least. What's funny is I always thought that I had enough ammo there, do you think I need more? Hahaha and MAP05 you seem to be so scared to trigger any more traps at the end, that's how I know I did good. The BFG trap might have been a little rough ;) Thanks again for the demos I hope you enjoy

[baja blast rd.]

Anyway, played the rest of the maps. I didn't bother recording any demos since I guess you didn't watch my first batch.

My first deaths were in map08. This one has quite a few things that are unfair on first playthrough:

1) Brigade of hitscanners upon entering the first teleporter. Eh, have to know there are chaingunners behind you and run directly to a corner of the room. The row of stimpacks isn't enough to sustain you out in the open if the RNG gets mean enough, because there are so many hitscanners. The single shotgun should also be given out earlier, so that running over a shotgun guy corpse doesn't force a weapon switch, which can be quite annoying in such a fight.

2) All the infinite tall shenanigans around the ledge. There are a couple of late AVs that resurrect monsters around the ledge, blocking the descent via infinite height. Moving to one side to draw them away isn't reliable because they clump up in one of the two indentations. Also revs can probably block the ledge right after the hitscanner jamboree.

3) When you teleport back up to the main area, after the caco business, it's possible to teleport right into the thick of revenants, who damage you before you can move.

It seems like this map aspires to be challenging, but the actual meat and bones of the encounters are quite easy (not in an unfun way, however, but still), and all of the challenge stems from unfair things of various sorts.

That's even if you ignore the invulnerability secret.

I don't really like secrets like that, because it often feels to me like the mapper wants to create a map a lot more challenging than his usual fare while still being able to beat it himself. Maybe that's not always the case, but I can't really see why else a mapper would give extremely overpowered secrets like this. It completely trivializes the map if you find it, but otherwise you'll have to contend with lots of nuisances. And it's in a tiny push closet, not even a grand area that takes a whole sidequest to find. Imagine if there was a map billed as having no health, only there was a tiny secret room full of megaspheres. Well that'd be the impression I get.

Anyway, I enjoyed the rest of the maps. Quite a bit actually -- fun maps to blitz through. This one needs a lot of tweaks however.

1) Subtract all aforementioned unfairness.
2) The encounters can be made tougher to compensate.

a) The manc in the first room is a bit too far away to pose much of a threat. Imps don't really do much either. Could slightly beef up that contingent, perhaps adding a revenant or chaingunner -- something to temporarily draw away attention from the AV.

b) The cacos are quite harmless. One or two could be replaced with pain elementals, or perhaps ammo can be temporarily withheld until the player goes back up to the top. (Of course it's necessary to fix the revenants so they don't end up clumping near the teleport destination.)

[TheNerdTurtle2]

Thanks rdwpa! I'm glad you enjoyed, for MAP08 I'm probably gonna get rid of the gunners behind you, and I don't know what to do with the infinity tall actors, also I completely forgot about that secret hahaha, I never used it in testing. BTW I'm about to watch your demos, I kinda forgot earlier bc I got distracted (that always happens)

[plums]

Hi, enjoyed these maps. Forgot to play MAP31, will go back and try that. I generally agree with rdwpa on MAP08, it felt a bit cheap though I guess I didn't mind it as much, it just took a few tries because some situations really benefit from having foreknowledge of what's about to happen. With a small map that's not something I consider too much of a problem, but I know I don't speak for everyone. That invuln needs to go though, for sure.

The rest were good as-is, short and sweet. I guess one semi-complaint I have is that the variety of textures and themes make the maps lack cohesion a little, but it's really not a big deal.

[kuchitsu]

Hi. Sorry, I thought you disappeared completely so I released that level on my own: https://www.doomworld.com/idgames/levels/doom2/Ports/m-o/newik1 Maybe it's silly that it exists in tho wads now and you want to remove it (at least you still have that other small map we made together). Or maybe it's fine, I don't know. I'm glad to see that you're making progress with your project.

[TheNerdTurtle2]

kuchitsu said:

Hi. Sorry, I thought you disappeared completely so I released that level on my own: https://www.doomworld.com/idgames/levels/doom2/Ports/m-o/newik1 Maybe it's silly that it exists in tho wads now and you want to remove it (at least you still have that other small map we made together). Or maybe it's fine, I don't know. I'm glad to see that you're making progress with your project.

Sorry yeah I know I kinda vanished, but if you want I'll take the map out in the final version. I don't know how much more work I'll put into this WAD it really drained me as it was too ambitious for what I usually do. But I know I'm gonna be making final tweaks before releasing the final version

[kuchitsu]

Yeah I think maybe it's better to remove it from here because there are already some speedruns for the other release. So it might get confusing if there are two versions.

[plums]

Heh, MAP31 was funny, but if it's meant to be a playable map I think it could do with more ammo. Hard enough to stay alive without scrounging for shells and trying to maximize damage on every shot, and since it's disconnected from the rest of the maps, there's no way to carry over ammo anyhow. Also it seems like there are cells but no plasma weapons, at least on UV? So maybe it just needs a plasma gun somewhere.

[snapshot]

When i read the title, i thought of Doom 2 Remix : Earth on Hell .

[TheNerdTurtle2]

DMGUYDZ64 said:

When i read the title, i thought of Doom 2 Remix : Earth on Hell .

It's mostly just a name I thought of because the levels don't have any story or theme besides kill the demons haha

plums said:

Heh, MAP31 was funny, but if it's meant to be a playable map I think it could do with more ammo. Hard enough to stay alive without scrounging for shells and trying to maximize damage on every shot, and since it's disconnected from the rest of the maps, there's no way to carry over ammo anyhow. Also it seems like there are cells but no plasma weapons, at least on UV? So maybe it just needs a plasma gun somewhere.

Yeah it was gonna be a secret map and the joke is that it's MAP01 and I made it during the year of the skeleton :P I'll def add more ammo or a plasma gun

[TheNerdTurtle2]

rdwpa I just played your demos thanks a lot :) it looks like you shook your head to the teleporter secret on MAP02 because there were only a few health bonuses but you didn't find the whole secret, there is a soulsphere in there if you know how to get it :P Anyway thanks a lot

[stonedbaroness]

I played through this WAD with Project Brutality 2.05 and I have to say, It was really fun and thoroughly Enjoyable to play through. MAP31 was much more fun with the fact that blowing up the Revenants rewards you with the Revenant Missle Launcher. It can also switch to its Railgun firemode and Carve deeper sockets in the skulls of the Skeletons. For a Vanilla Wad, I rate 9.5/10 (MAP07 Needs a Cyberdemon or a boss of some sort, It'd fit better with the level.)