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Bucкsнoт

Xiller's Hellcity

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Hey y'all! I'd love to call this my first map, but, well, that got lost ages ago. Anyways, this is my first map that I'm sharing here and I'm really excited to get this out here. I'd like to ultimately build 8 levels or so as a full game eventually, but for now I made this extra large level full of hell knights. Lots of them. I had a lot of fun making this map and a whole lot more playing it, so I hope you can, too. (the music is 100% unique and 100% awesome)

 

This level was built for GZDoom with Doom II, tested on version g3.2.5. Mouselook and jumping are highly recommended; I doubt you could finish this without them! Other game settings are up to you. There is only one map, so you can stop after you reach the end. This map is fairly difficult (you can die easily on easy) and is not for those with weak fingers. Also, I recommend you play with a friend. You can use gzdoom's built in networking, or this also works on ZDaemon and (I think) Zandronum.

 

Alright. If you're gonna play this, you're gonna need to learn to dodge. Lots of fireballs everywhere. Yikes. This level also features all 3 different difficulties! Easy (Hey, not too rough), Medium (Hurt me plenty), and Hard (Ultra Violence). Easy is actually pretty easy, and I'm still dying on Medium. Hard is arguably the most fun to play, just watch your ammo. If you can't tell what difficulty you're on, look at the box in front of you at the start. The more skulls you see, the harder it is!

 

You'll be starting with a Super Shotgun. Trust me, you need it. I dare you to go with the pistol for the first 10 seconds. And all that ammo at the start? Heh, you'll run through that in minutes. There are TONS of secrets you don't have to find (it makes for a realllllyyyyy looooooonggggg game), and yes, there IS a BFG. Good luck finding it. Oh, and you should save your ammo for the really tough fight at the end! I doubt you'll be able to dodge around to the exit.

 

This map is very run-and-gun bullet hell, so have fun. If you can run, you shouldn't die.

 

A little bit of a story? Well, you're running through a city in hell and... um... Yeah. Shoot the crap out of demons and that's about it. And run through some wicked cool caves and don't get burned by lava and watch out for those damn imps!

 

Lemme shoot you some screenshots...

 

Spoiler

Capture.png.2601587b475f932fb4b8b8a65122f541.pngCapture.png.dde44fa8fc2bc32164c356d7b449c4dd.pngCapture.png.a8ef732ae60f503d102374b35868ef37.pngCapture.png.1c835d8666d6d849f38b12fd496448a0.pngCapture.png.d8b81f8769c64262179c009435ed08c6.pngvery-hard.thumb.jpg.a1e5e1396a9b95607c3c1b28534827b4.jpg

 
 

 

Also, why not include a demo? This demo works with GZDoom version g3.2.5. I'll throw it in the .zip with the WAD file. You can watch it with:

gzdoom.exe -iwad doom2 -file xiller.wad -playdemo demo.lmp

Ok, I wasn't playing very well. What can I say? I recorded it at 11 pm right before this post, after a long day of work.

 

Download the level and the demo:  Xiller's Hellcity.zip

 

Let me know what you think and if you beat Ultra Violence! (Those damn arachnotrons scare the crap out of me when they come out of nowhere)

 

~ Bucкsнoт

 

 

Edit: 

I can see that y'all are shaming me for using Oblige. I had no idea what Oblige was until I saw your replies. After playing around with it this morning, I think it's very cool. An internet friend and I have been playing Doom together for a while and we decided to make some levels ourselves. He sent me a few maps he claimed he made, and I really liked the architecture. I directly copied it and threw together this huge level, and then I polished it up as best I could. He admitted this morning that he did use Oblige.

 

Also, I'd like to point out that, although I've been building levels for a while now (been playing Doom for around 6 months, making random crappy little levels for around 5), I decided to join this forum just a few days ago, to get some help with a skybox and some things. What a warm welcome.

 

 

Edited by Bucкsнoт : wrongfully shaming the new guy bleh

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Judging by screenshots, gameplay and some small details, I can tell this map is heavily modified oblige map. Before saying "how do you know", there are some things which differ "hand-made" and oblige maps. Oblige(map generator) always uses some specific shapes and sectors for secrets, keys, corridors and switches and they mostly repeat in maps. User made maps are often unpredictable and driven by imagination, almost every map place is unique and have some mapper's soul or choices included. I recommend to try do real map, drawed by your hand and mouse, even if result won't look good or play good, at least it will be unique and have your choices. 

Edited by Myst.Haruko : More explanation I guess

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It's got some nice designs in there for sure, the music works well too. But I think the wad could really do with some better direction, as myst.haruko said the map is somewhat unpredictable and feels quite imaginative, from my view the map really didn't have a sense of direction and just didn't make sense, with that the themes really don't differ that much with texture placement. Its a good wad no doubt, but the flaws lie within the concept of the wad itself, so its more for something to look out for a next wad project.

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Played on Zdoom, compatibility Doom(strict),Ultra Violence, keyboard and mouse(never mouselook because ew). N/A%kills, N/A%secrets, N/A%items.

 

I played it but quit half way through. I do agree with Myst.Haruko that there's something artificial about the map. I thought that the map had interesting texture choices and combination and some of the architecture was indeed good-looking(those archways), I actually liked that aspect but the more I played the map, the more I noticed those weird patterns the map had like repeating room shapes, sparse monster usage(not to mention the off monster positioning) and the lack of visual landmarks. Everything, everywhere was around the same scale and size. Also, I have a very soft spot for red skies but this one felt a little bit off, maybe even calling it a little bit lazy. 

 

I also found your description of the map quite vague, implying the map is really hard and that an average player won't survive 10 seconds with a pistol which I would say is complete non-sense. You have access to at least 3 different weapons aside from the SSG and there's almost nothing to stop you from gathering them. Most of the monsters I've encountered were just HKs, Imps and Demons which made the map rather easy and manageable.

 

Anyway, I found a few things I thought were worth showing in my brief playthrough. Maybe you should consider avoiding these in the future(if this map is indeed your work of art even if I somewhat doubt that):


 

Spoiler

 

Spotted this misalignment a couple of times, takes a second to fix:

Screenshot_Doom_20180131_112806.png.0d0c2f5581b0515c6e5898df47a42922.png

 

This torch at the beginning:

 

Screenshot_Doom_20180131_112815.png.83408b78be7ac8fcc1d725606e75edbc.png

 

No height variation between floor texture changes, especially liquid texture. Maybe not everyone would agree but I think it looks bad.

 

Screenshot_Doom_20180131_112831.png.9cff62cc36891d8408ac2883967447ad.png

 

This little wall texture:

 

Screenshot_Doom_20180131_113141.png.96769c6aea970389ef3d3f100485c26f.png

 

See screenshot#1.

 

Screenshot_Doom_20180131_113216.png.2cf982c6d7c2a2c0dd174b8d1edbe0b9.png

 

 

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@Uni it's because map is made with oblige and just heavily modified, nothing special if you think about repeating shapes, not much monsters and paterns. My words were to encourage mapper to do real work-mapping with hand, which keeps mouse, in builder.

I think you should re-read my post and first sentence. I guess, I'll edit post with more explanation. 

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I can also tell that the map is a modified Oblige map (unless that I'm proven wrong). I mean, I can recognize the layout and how it was built anyway. 

But don't let that thing discourage you, you can always try to make the map from scratch and in this site, there's a good bunch of tutorials and folks which can guide and help you.

Also, the textures used for the map clashes each other, which can be a bit problematic from the player's point of view. And someone here said that the red textures are the predominant color and...yea, it is and it was used in abundance. Some variety of texture color wouldn't be bad :)

Edited by leodoom85 : More explanation

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1 hour ago, Myst.Haruko said:

@Uni it's because map is made with oblige and just heavily modified, nothing special if you think about repeating shapes, not much monsters and paterns. My words were to encourage mapper to do real work-mapping with hand, which keeps mouse, in builder.

I think you should re-read my post and first sentence. I guess, I'll edit post with more explanation. 

I have read your post regarding the justified suspicion whether it's an OBLIGE creation or not. I simply wanted to review the map in my own experience and giving my feedback accordingly. 

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This is 100% an OBLIGE map. OBLIGE modifications are okay to share -- but when you share a wad you are 

 

Spoiler

OBLIGED (ZING!!!!)

 

to mention that your wad is one. 

 

Also no exaggeration, this (on UV) is the easiest map I've seen posted here in a while, by a comfortable margin too. It doesn't require mouselook or jumping, but the music is glitched out in prBoom+, and the sky doesn't display as in the screenshots. Otherwise progression is functional, albeit convoluted. 

 

Based on some of the lines in the OP this feels like it might be a troll, but I'll offer the benefit of the doubt here. Anyway, including video of FDA.

 

 

Edited by rdwpa

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If we assume your account of getting the map from a friend is true and that this friend failed to mention that it was not a true original work, and this friend also gave you the okay to post it as your own without mentioning him/her, then your frustration is somewhat understandable. And I might suggest you direct some of it toward your friend for both putting you in this position and never introducing you to what possibly could have been a valuable tool to you all this time.

 

But since every indication in the original post was that this was an original, from scratch map ("my first map that I'm sharing here"), you can hopefully understand why people were surprised to deduce that it was largely generated. And when they do figure that out, they're much more likely to think you're trying to pass something off as original that's only partly/quasi original than that you were given full rights to do an overhaul on a map that you had no idea was (partly) generated.

 

Bottom line: give credit where it is due. Even if your friend had made the map from scratch, it would have been good to mention something like, "this is the first wad I'm sharing. The bare bones come from a friend, but I've done a significant overhaul, including some of the geometry, monsters, textures, etc." Something like that.

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I learned how to map by modifying a SLIGE map back in like '98, so it's hard for me to see any shame in the practice of using random maps as a base.

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The overhauls are barely noticeable, if they are there at all. I binged on lots of Oblige maps occasionally and I can't spot anything that is human-generated. 

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