Castle Struggle

[Lorenz0]

Okay so I made a few maps in the past, but this is the first one that was good enough to upload, so here you go. It's just one map made with some textures from GOTHICTX, and it's pretty easy, so I don't think anyone will have any trouble getting through it. It was tested on Zandronum, so it should work on other source ports just as well. All feedback is greatly appreciated ;)

 

 

idgames link:

https://www.doomworld.com/idgames/levels/doom2/Ports/s-u/struggle

 

Screenshots:

 

 

Edited January 1, 2021 by Lorenz0 : removing a direct download link

[Summer Deep]

It's not that easy! I managed to kill 96 of the 185 monsters on my fourth attempt at the map (playing on UV, ZDoom), before being toasted by an arachnatron. Ammo seems to be in very short supply and I had to rely a lot on infighting. The map looks very good indeed, the stained glass windows being a particularly nice touch. 

[Lorenz0]

Well maybe I'm a bit biased since I have a lot of practice with this map and I know how to approach certain areas, but it can get a bit difficult in some parts. I wasn't really sure if the ammo is well balanced, but I figured it was enough. If you find the secrets, they might help you a bit with that. If there will be more complaints about ammo, then I might add some and post the updated map.

[Degree23]

Gave this a go on UV.

 

+ I really like the level layout. There's quite a bit to explore, and it's not 100% linear either.

- The start is a real pain. You have to go quite far into the level before you what basically looks like the "armoury" with a few weapons. These all need moving to nearer the start because of how many Mancubii/HK/Revenants you have around. There needs to be at LEAST an SSG where you have the first CG. There was overall enough ammo in the map, but not enough of it is near the start and I ended with quite a surplus at the end.

- For me there are FAR too many sniping Revenants and Arachnatrons. These are the worst enemies to have to be able to shoot you from far away as there are either homing rockets or a constant stream of plasma to contend with.

- The Armor could probably do with being near the start as well.

- If you're going to teleport a lot of enemies into a room (e.g. where the BFG) then you really need to ensure the player isn't going in with anything less than 100/100. (Maybe there was extra health and I missed it, but when you have multiple routes to a place, you should put some health at the common end point)

- Oh I forgot to mention. At the blue bars, you can actually skip by them because your bars don't go all the way to the edge of the walkway. The ledge is only slim, but I was able to get past there.

 

Overall I felt very frustrated playing this map, although it definitely has a lot of potential.

Edited December 21, 2017 by Degree23

[Summer Deep]

The ammo situation does get a fair bit better if one rushes along those ledges around the watery areas (very hazardous) at the start to grab the supplies there, then gets as quickly as possible to the armory near the hall with the entrances to the blue door rooms. Still some very vicious stuff to deal with though, not least those spectral demons which teleport about so dangerously - an early chainsaw might not be a bad idea also!

 

 

Edited December 21, 2017 by Summer Deep

[Lorenz0]

You don't really have to visit the armory at the beggining, I think that the most efficient strategy is to take the SSG (which is right at the beggining!), don't worry about the monsters on cliffs, they tend to infight pretty well, and go for the yellow key area. It's completable without the need to go to the armory, and you get a rocket launcher for which you can find ammo at the cliffs under the monsters.

What do you mean ensure the player is going in with 100/100, you have a damn megasphere in the same room as the BFG.

Hmm, I thought they weren't skippable, I might change them a bit.

 

You don't need a chainsaw, there is a berserk pack in one of the secrets.

[Summer Deep]

I did manage to finish this, 48 minutes of playing time in total. The level ended unexpectedly quickly after going through the red & yellow doors, and was very straightforward from that point on (was really expecting a big boss showdown). I still think a chainsaw would come in handy, especially in view of the large numbers of Lost Souls that can be generated by the Pain Elementals and the fact that other ammo is not exactly superabundant. 

 

On a side note, I think you could have dispersed the monsters in the yellow key room more effectively, rather than having them congregate in one corner (except for the Revenants of course). Hiding some of them behind the pillars would have made things a bit trickier here. In addition, maybe the pillars are too wide, providing too much protection from the Revenants. On a couple of occasions I was able to rush behind the Revenants to get extra supplies, then get back behind a pillar without any trouble at all.

 

I didn't find either of the secrets by the way.

 

A pretty promising effort, well worth playing and mainly very enjoyable despite my earlier criticism. Perhaps the fact that I play most of my Doom in continuous, 'weapon carryover' mode, rather than pistol starts has made me a bit complacent and unused to having to 'scavenge' for weapons and ammo. 

 

Edited December 21, 2017 by Summer Deep

[Lorenz0]

After replaying the map I had no trouble with ammo whatsoever (it ran out at the very end), and the only part I've been struggling with was the BFG trap, since it's probably the most difficult section. So I think that it just comes down to experience with the map, and that's most likely the case with many non linear maps, since there is always the most efficient path that isn't found on the first attempt.

 

Anyway thanks for the feedback :>

[baja blast rd.]

Played the map, had no trouble with difficulty or ammo. At the start of maps that give me a SG and CG, I pretty much insist on skipping monsters like the perched mancubus and all those HKs, not for the sake of ammo preservation but mostly to avoid boring myself. So a player not inclined similarly might more easily run out of ammo. BFG trap is easy provided you pick up the cells on the side (it's actually possible to miss that they are there until afterwards, but it's still survivable with just the one BFG shot -- and also without that megasphere that is easy to miss until you're done with this fight). 

 

A few things I noticed: 

 

- Sides of doors should be lower unpegged so that the texture doesn't rise and lower when it doesn't make sense (a chain for example could make sense, but black rock moving rapidly up and down looks silly). 

 

- I'd set doors to take longer to close after being opened, or just to stay open. Fighting while having to constantly reopen a door isn't so fun.

 

- Not a huge fan of some of the scripted warp-ins, honestly, mostly because they are the sort that don't allow you to use the rocket launcher if you are unfamiliar with the map (or lack psychic powers). Monsters appear in arbitrary places (not marked by something like a teleport pad), at arbitrary times (not constantly warping in everywhere, which immediately signals 'don't use rocket launcher until it stops', but rather appearing in sudden waves), so a player who gets unlucky can end up rocketing themselves in the face on a monster that suddenly materializes there. So because of that I ended up only using the RL for cleanup of beefier monsters, which of course is less fun than pumping it into an active threat.

 

- Slime is inconsistent as far as damage goes. Most of it isn't damaging, but there's a random death pit -- not good, because one might want to explore slime pits that have supposedly been established as non-damaging for secrets or goodies.

 

- Every trap that is remotely dangerous can be trivialized by fleeing. That's one side effect of making the warp-ins progressive but also localized to the specific area they occur, and with no lock-in. Not a big problem in itself. What's more of a problem is these encounters are also semi-dangerous without foreknowledge but trivial with it. They feel like one-trick ponies in that respect.

 

Gameplay early and in the middle is okay but the map runs out of steam afterwards -- RK and YK traps are underwhelming, lots of the combat is opening doors and killing stuff in front of you. It's a legitimate map though; aesthetics are rough in places (aforementioned door sides in particular) but it has a decent sense of place going for it. Looking forward to future releases, particularly because parts of this map have demonstrated a willingness to be mean (chaingunners at PR for example), which appeals to me. :)

 

Edited December 23, 2017 by rdwpa

[Lorenz0]

I honestly forgot about the door textures when I was making the map, oops .-.

I did notice that you can skip some of the traps with no consequence and it bothered me, but I had no idea how to make them inevitable without remaking the entire section of the map. I'm talking especially about the plasma and BFG traps.

All of the problems you mentioned are legit, and they will be gone in my next map, that I'm currently working on. Thanks for the response ;)

[guineu]

Liked the map a lot because of the non-linearity but more than that because of how the different parts of the map feel interconnected, unlike "non-linear" maps with three keys in three separated areas that you can get in any order but each of those areas is completely disconnected from the rest of the map.

 

Wanted to record a video for a while and today finally got to it. It took a few attempts, died at least twice at the BFG/plasma so in the end I took a coward approach:

 

 

[Lorenz0]

3 hours ago, guineu said:

Liked the map a lot because of the non-linearity but more than that because of how the different parts of the map feel interconnected, unlike "non-linear" maps with three keys in three separated areas that you can get in any order but each of those areas is completely disconnected from the rest of the map.

 

Wanted to record a video for a while and today finally got to it. It took a few attempts, died at least twice at the BFG/plasma so in the end I took a coward approach:

 

 

Nice, thanks for the playthrough. Watching it made me realize how many flaws my map actually has. I think you found a way to cheese every possible trap ;D