The Tyrant's Abyss - Hell Map

[jerrysheppy]

I've opened up the (first?) outside area full of lava and rock and have defeated the first wave you encounter, but haven't yet made it past the swarm of revenants & others that wake up when you go down into the lava. I'll probably work on it more tomorrow, but I stopped for the night.

[DASI-I]

MistAche said:

On final release I'll include HMP difficulty, which should make it significantly easier. Thanks for giving it a go bud :)

No prob. By the way, love the design. played it on ZDoom and I noticed quite a bit of a framrate drop, which in this case is not a bad thing, this map is huge with lots of detail. I look forward to the final version.

[CrazyDoomguy]

jerrysheppy, how many time you spend to play Doom or other games? You need feel the game, so you can win this.

Mistache, you plan next level? it would be interesting :)

[MistAche]

yaqxsw said:

Mistache, you plan next level? it would be interesting :)

Yes, at the time of this map I started another titled 'Exsanguination'. Will be less of a slaughter map as it's based in a Citadel. Now to find time when I'm not living life to finish this one first...

DASI-I said:

No prob. By the way, love the design. played it on ZDoom and I noticed quite a bit of a framrate drop, which in this case is not a bad thing, this map is huge with lots of detail. I look forward to the final version.

Thanks. Yeah I got the same framedrop using ZDoom too which was interesting... it's normally my 'go-to' port if a WAD is too hefty. It's a big map, but not Sunder-big. Hopefully it didn't impede on your play too much.

[jerrysheppy]

Finally finished grinding my way through this. Architecture was great, especially after I finished clearing the first outdoor area and descended into the caves. The influence of Year 23 (one of my favorite maps, btw) was clear here and I think you did a good job with the style, though there were a few weird texture choices like the tech doors in the blue key area. The fights involving cyberdemons before the blue key were my favorites in the map-- still intense, but through interesting monster placement rather than surprise swarms of monsters to cut off all my mobility. I could try an approach, realize 'nah this isn't going to work' and have room to circle around and regroup before approaching the encounter again, which is my preferred style of challenge.

yaqxsw said:

jerrysheppy, how many time you spend to play Doom or other games? You need feel the game, so you can win this.

I've been playing Doom for... 18 years or so? Maybe 19? Not sure what you're trying to say here.

[MistAche]

jerrysheppy said:

Finally finished grinding my way through this. Architecture was great, especially after I finished clearing the first outdoor area and descended into the caves. The influence of Year 23 (one of my favorite maps, btw) was clear here and I think you did a good job with the style, though there were a few weird texture choices like the tech doors in the blue key area. The fights involving cyberdemons before the blue key were my favorites in the map-- still intense, but through interesting monster placement rather than surprise swarms of monsters to cut off all my mobility. I could try an approach, realize 'nah this isn't going to work' and have room to circle around and regroup before approaching the encounter again, which is my preferred style of challenge.

I've been playing Doom for... 18 years or so? Maybe 19? Not sure what you're trying to say here.

Awesome, nice work!

I agree on the door textures that they don't sit quite right with me, they're just place holders at this stage. Did you find the invulnerability sphere ontop of the lava fall? seriously helps with the horde of revenants. I'm not sure what yaqxsw was getting at - but you did well to complete what I've provided so far... it's not easy by any stretch. With the cyberdemons, I wanted to limit the first two to the black step infront of the fortress gate, simply in an attempt to block players from just sprinting past them. This also gives the player room to breath.

How did you find the ammo balance?

[Tritnew]

MistAche said:

Yes, at the time of this map I started another titled 'Exsanguination'. Will be less of a slaughter map as it's based in a Citadel. Now to find time when I'm not living life to finish this one first...

http://i.imgur.com/Ryb6QlW.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/3U9fd3P.jpg

Mmm, that map looks tasty.

[jerrysheppy]

MistAche said:

Awesome, nice work!

I agree on the door textures that they don't sit quite right with me, they're just place holders at this stage. Did you find the invulnerability sphere ontop of the lava fall? seriously helps with the horde of revenants. I'm not sure what yaqxsw was getting at - but you did well to complete what I've provided so far... it's not easy by any stretch. With the cyberdemons, I wanted to limit the first two to the black step infront of the fortress gate, simply in an attempt to block players from just sprinting past them. This also gives the player room to breath.

How did you find the ammo balance?

I didn't find an invulnerability at any point.

Ammo balance was so-so. The backpack was a little hard to find at first because it was in such a huge open area with so much else going on, but I caught onto it soon enough. The main places in the map where I had trouble with ammo were near the very beginning (before getting into the outdoor area) and midway into the caves, when you first enter the big staircase area between the red door area and the blue door area, and it's wall-to-wall with Imps at first. In those cases, it wasn't so much that the ammo didn't exist nearby, rather it was that the ammo was difficult or impossible to get to due to the quasi-literal walls of imps in the way. Later on in that same area, after I do the thing that releases a bunch of revenants, arch-viles and cacos onto the stairs, I ended up finding it difficult to use ammo efficiently because I was under too much pressure to ideally line up rockets, BFG tracers, etc., so I ran low again. Once I cleared out the big cave with the cyberdemons, I wasn't really having ammo problems anymore and I didn't really have ammo problems as such during the whole sequence with getting the red key (health was much more of an issue here-- there was a blue armor but not very much health until the megasphere becomes available, at which point the map is close to over anyway).

I don't think you need to make any changes to UV based on my feedback since I would never have played on UV if skill settings were finalized, but maybe this helps you with balancing skills 1-3.

[MistAche]

jerrysheppy said:

I didn't find an invulnerability at any point.

Ammo balance was so-so. The backpack was a little hard to find at first because it was in such a huge open area with so much else going on, but I caught onto it soon enough. The main places in the map where I had trouble with ammo were near the very beginning (before getting into the outdoor area) and midway into the caves, when you first enter the big staircase area between the red door area and the blue door area, and it's wall-to-wall with Imps at first. In those cases, it wasn't so much that the ammo didn't exist nearby, rather it was that the ammo was difficult or impossible to get to due to the quasi-literal walls of imps in the way. Later on in that same area, after I do the thing that releases a bunch of revenants, arch-viles and cacos onto the stairs, I ended up finding it difficult to use ammo efficiently because I was under too much pressure to ideally line up rockets, BFG tracers, etc., so I ran low again. Once I cleared out the big cave with the cyberdemons, I wasn't really having ammo problems anymore and I didn't really have ammo problems as such during the whole sequence with getting the red key (health was much more of an issue here-- there was a blue armor but not very much health until the megasphere becomes available, at which point the map is close to over anyway).

I don't think you need to make any changes to UV based on my feedback since I would never have played on UV if skill settings were finalized, but maybe this helps you with balancing skills 1-3.

Interesting read. I think you're right, not many tweaks needed for UV in that case. I will add however, that there is a relatively easy backpack find at the start; the switch you hit where the chaingunners/sergeants are atop the ledge, opens the wall right next to where you can see them through the window. I put the second and third backpack outside incase the player missed it.

I'd say that entire scenario with the wave of imps and later spawning AV's/Rev's is the hardest part of the map. As soon as I go through that door and see the AV's I drop down to the right into the lava for the blue armor. Anyway, thanks again.