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Bauul

[RELEASED] My first map: Foursite – a new 4-in-1 design (now with video)

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Finished version is now released! Thank you to everyone who provided feedback on my first ever map for Doom!

A new four-in-one map for vanilla Doom 2: four mini maps inside a single level linked by a central hub corridor. No advanced source-port features, just pure classic Doom gameplay.

Download here on ModDB or from idgames.

Play-through video



Screenshots
Spoiler











Technical Information
  • Title: Foursite
  • IWAD: Doom 2
  • Source Port required: Anything that supports DeepBSP Extended Nodes. The map has no non-vanilla features beyond its physical size.
  • Tested on: ZDoom, GZDoom, Crispy, Risen3D, PRBoom+, Eternity, Zandronum and Zandronum 3.0.
  • Primary purpose: Single player
  • Content: No new assets, but a DEHACKED file with some small gameplay changes (see below for details)
Background Story
The Foursite military base lies abandoned, rapidly deserted for apparently unknown reasons. You’ve heard rumors of a secret backdoor entrance: find the entrance, explore the four quadrants of the base, reach the heart of the base, and escape alive.

Design Information
  • Build time: 200-300 hours over the course of 13 months.
  • Difficulty levels: Implemented. Hurt Me Plenty is “normal” with HNTR featuring fewer enemies and UV featuring more.
  • Estimated playtime: at least 90 minutes (possibly up to 2-3 hours).
  • Monster to total available ammo ratio (at UV): Between 1:1.6 and 1:2 depending on SS/SSG usage and excluding monster ammo pickups.

Design Background
Spoiler

The overall concept of the four circular quadrants based around a single horizontal corridor I originally thought up in a particular dull Accounting lecture at University in 2004. I was building the occasional Doom 3 map at the time, and originally envisioned it as a level for that. Unfortunately with school-work piling up, I only got as far as creating a single room before the project was abandoned.

Fast forward 11 years, and after watching one of Nitroactive's YouTube reviews of terrible wads, I felt motivated that if someone could go and create those awful examples, surely I could at least make something half good? So I came back to my old Doomworld stamping grounds (was saddened to see my post count has been reset to 0 because I’ve been away so long), and say hello.

The overall design for the map is a simple one: four wedge-shaped mini-maps, each with its own visual style and assortment of enemies. Each of these four “quadrants” also ends with a kind of boss-room – some are environmental, some are enemy based, some are a combination of the two. Beyond each boss-room is a switch that opens the door to the next quadrant.

The overall design for the map is a simple one: four wedge-shaped mini-maps, each with its own visual style and assortment of enemies. Each of these four “quadrants” also ends with a kind of boss-room – some are environmental, some are enemy based, some are a combination of the two. Beyond each boss-room is a switch that opens the door to the next quadrant. Once all four quadrants are complete, the final boss room is opened and can be accessed to complete the level.

Level Stats
  • Vertices: 31,918
  • Linedefs: 38,708
  • Sidedefs: 70,399
  • Sectors: 8,820
  • Things (at UV): 4,891 (of which 1,062 are monsters)
  • Total map space covered: circa 118 million map units

DEHACKED Information (some mild spoilers I guess?)
Spoiler

Three major changes:
1: Bloody Mess 2 changed to use the previously unused Frame 887 grey stalagmite
2: Cyberdemons have half health (2,000 HP) to make killing them less of a chore
3: Spiderdemon behavior changed significantly for a special encounter: it now has 20,000 HP (x6.666 base health), almost 0% pain chance, and never stops firing (even when the player leaves its line of sight).


Finally
Special thanks to everyone on the forums who have answered my tedious questions over the last year: Gez, scifista42, Graf Zahl, stewboy, MaxEd, Edward850, and everyone who provided feedback on the map in this thread below!

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I gave this a go on Zandronum on UV.

- After the SG where you can run off the edge and die, is there any point to that triangular area? While it's near the start, it still annoyed me that I had to start again. Maybe it should just be blocked off.
- The dark section with a lot of Spectres was very tedious to get through.
- I'm sorry but the rising circular section with the many spawning Lost Souls is nothing but absolutely frustrating. The narrow walkways are annoying enough, but you then also add in Pain Elementals in the upper parts of it, with damaging floors where you need to take at least 20 damage to get to a teleporter if you fall off, with no armour anywhere in sight in this section. Fewer Lost Souls are an absolute necessity here, with fewer switches to hit to get to the top.
- The walkways section with the Revenants firing at you is a real pain. Revenants in the distance, where you can't hit them, are exceptionally annoying because of the homing rockets. Maybe they could be changed to Hell Knights instead.
- The maze section near the end with the Spectres and Mancubii firing at you is a cool idea, but there's literally nothing to indicate which way you should go and it became very tedious.
- I wasn't really a fan of the final boss fight, but it is executed very well and I'm sure many will like it.

It took me a good hour to beat this and overall it was very enjoyable.

Oh, and the three coloured doors giving access to powerful weapons before you meet them in the main progression was a really nice touch.

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degree23 said:

I gave this a go on Zandronum on UV.


Thanks for the detailed feedback! It's really appreciated. Definitely some good suggestions too:

- After the SG where you can run off the edge and die, is there any point to that triangular area? While it's near the start, it still annoyed me that I had to start again. Maybe it should just be blocked off.


You mean the broken end of the underground road? No point other than world-building: it's to show the player how you *used* to access the base. But I completely forgot to put an escape teleporter down there, I'll add one now, thanks. I could also put some grey stalagmites there to make it more clear there's nothing down there.

- The dark section with a lot of Spectres was very tedious to get through.


You mean the sewer section in the first quadrant? Yeah I do really rack the number of Spectres up on UV, I could turn that down a bit. I've had people test it on HMP and loved it, so I guess there's a point where it stops being tense and just gets annoying.

- I'm sorry but the rising circular section with the many spawning Lost Souls is nothing but absolutely frustrating. The narrow walkways are annoying enough, but you then also add in Pain Elementals in the upper parts of it, with damaging floors where you need to take at least 20 damage to get to a teleporter if you fall off, with no armour anywhere in sight in this section. Fewer Lost Souls are an absolute necessity here, with fewer switches to hit to get to the top.


Hmm. I really like this section: it's probably one of my favorite sections in the level, but I understand your frustrations. The floor definitely doesn't need to be 20 damage tick (5 would do) and perhaps a couple of items of green armour as you rise would mitigate the damage of the lost souls. I'll give it a tweak.

- The walkways section with the Revenants firing at you is a real pain. Revenants in the distance, where you can't hit them, are exceptionally annoying because of the homing rockets. Maybe they could be changed to Hell Knights instead.


Agreed. The homing rockets do make it overly tough. I'll swap them out for HKs.

- The maze section near the end with the Spectres and Mancubii firing at you is a cool idea, but there's literally nothing to indicate which way you should go and it became very tedious.


I didn't want to make it too easy, but you're right that I don't want it to be tedious. I wonder if I could put them candles or something at key points to indicate you're going the right way? I'll give it some thought.

- I wasn't really a fan of the final boss fight, but it is executed very well and I'm sure many will like it.


Totally understand, it's not a normal Doom encounter by any stretch, but if at least it worked correctly then that's a relief!

It took me a good hour to beat this and overall it was very enjoyable.

Oh, and the three coloured doors giving access to powerful weapons before you meet them in the main progression was a really nice touch.


Overall I'm glad you enjoyed it! I hope the good bits weren't outweighed by the frustrating bits!

Edit: Alright, version 2 uploaded with the above feedback taken into consideration. Download link above updated.

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Sweet map bro! My favorite rooms were the rising floor room with the bookcase in the center with the Pain Elementals and such, the huge cavernous area with the 3d bridges and that big room with the mancubi firing at your jumping on those lifts in the first area.

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General Rainbow Bacon said:

Sweet map bro! My favorite rooms were the rising floor room with the bookcase in the center with the Pain Elementals and such, the huge cavernous area with the 3d bridges and that big room with the mancubi firing at your jumping on those lifts in the first area.


I'm very glad you enjoyed it. Those 3D Bridges didn't half take ages to get right, given I'd never made one before!

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So far it is the most visually interesting new map I have seen in a long time.
For what you have done so far, ammo placement is good for the beastiary you have included and there are certainly enough health items.

However, when I got to this room



I wished I had a rocketlauncher with enough rockets, as these hidden mancubi caused my sudden demise. :)

Excellent so far.

[edit]
When jumping onto the moving pillars and you fall off towards the wall, you are stuck.

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Finished version is now released! Thank you to everyone who fed back on this thread, it's really appreciated.

If anyone does discover any more bugs, please let me know so I can get a quick fix in.

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Same room but lowering columns in the back.
Some of those columns travel lower than the floor and have no lower textures on the back sidedef



Also, same area.
Falling into this section offers no escape

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Kappes Buur said:

Same room but lowering columns in the back.
Some of those columns travel lower than the floor and have no lower textures on the back sidedef

Also, same area.
Falling into this section offers no escape


Thanks for the feedback! I've fixed that column now (there was a rogue adjacent sector making it lower too far).

I didn't believe you could get stuck behind that second pic - the gap between the columns was wide enough to slip through - but either way I've added a teleporter to escape now. New version uploaded to ModDB now (as and when it gets authorized).

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I caught this mentioned on Rock, Paper, Shotgun a few weeks back. I really enjoyed playing through it! It felt like one long adventure map with various unique interesting set pieces that ramp up in difficulty. The scale of everything is quite impressive sometimes too. Shame about that music though :( Oh well.

I played on UV and didn't think I'd get through that God damned Lost Soul column bit. I save scummed that son of a bitch and crawled my way to the exit with like 5% health. Whew! That was probably my least favorite part of the whole experience but at least it was something new.

Favorite part was probably the circular room near the end with the walls that would drop to reveal more and more enemies with each reveal switch finally ending with 3 Cyberdemons. Those were some fun fights.

I also enjoyed hide and seek with the Mastermind at the very end. Neat idea.

Glad you put screenshots of your work in the OP. Damn fine looking stuff. Nice work on a good map and congratulations on the release!

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