MajorRawne

5 hours ago, northivanastan said:

Currently have save files for Alien Vendetta, Doom Zero, and Plutonia 2, but honestly I don't know if I'll finish any of them. Certainly not confident I can finish Alien Vendetta considering the slaughtermaps later on.

Alien Vendetta is one of the only megawads that I felt was building towards something and getting more exciting as it went on. If you play through consecutively, save scum and watch Decino or Tatsurdcacocaco playing these maps on Youtube, you'll see that they have workable strategies which make them a bit less fearsome. They're not as hard as some Hell Revealed and most Sunder maps, for example.

Someone should compile a bucket list of Doom wads. I've never heard of half the wads people mention.

2 minutes ago, roadworx said:

only if they're into puzzles, cuz for those of us who aren't, it's...not the best time in the world lol

Hmm, that's true. I have had to noclip a couple of times due to missing some switch somewhere.

Still, infuriating switch hunts featured in a lot of wads of that time. It's the price to pay for going oldschool. It's not Eternal Doom levels of madness.

I'm playing STRAIN and Kama Sutra, currently focusing on STRAIN. I think people need to play STRAIN to see the best of classic Doom and to realise that low-key, intricate maps are awesome (in moderation).

Kama Sutra is to fill the void left over from finishing the Hell Revealeds. I was playing Sunder but map 5 was so obnoxious and the difficulty of later maps is so high I'm having a break. I abandoned Cyberdreams as I dodge like an ape.

After beating all these megawads, I'm playing Bloodstain.

PSX Doom. It was my first introduction to the Doom universe. My brother and I used to break out in sweats when we turned the Playstation on and heard the little Sony jingle. I remember people laughing at us for being scared of a game, especially my younger sister. Then I played her the music with the demons singing and she nearly started crying.

I also think Ultimate Doom and Doom 2 just play better on the Playstation. Most of the complicated/unfun levels were cut out, so you could get on with the adventure. The horrible mishmash of texture abuse was absent with a more muted, tightly controlled aesthetic. No Arch-Viles either, so no placing them at the back of a swarm of monsters undoing your work. Also, PSX Final Doom may seem like a butchered port but again it was tighter, more controlled, no ridiculous bullshit maps full of glitches or chaingun spam.

Doom 64 was where PSX-style Doom jumped the shark.

Doom 3 was atrocious at the time but has aged well, if you like walking through the same-looking rooms for hours before spending ten minutes in hell. This was where Doom Marines started to look like Master Chief.

Doom '16 was amazing to blaze through at first but apart from the gorgeous, intuitive controls, it just looked so generic.

Haven't played Doom Eternal but if you didn't tell me it was Doom, I probably wouldn't have guessed.

Ooh yeah this sounds good!

If you can see a door, the player should be able to go through it UNLESS it's absolutely vital that the door remain locked or closed for now. Basically the player should be allowed freedom to roam around the map and complete sections in any order they wish. The map has blue and red doors in it somewhere? Well, maybe the player can choose which order to go for the keys in, or maybe doesn't even need one to finish the map - there could be optional exploration.

Not sure how well this would play, but it would certainly be original.

Also - my dad loves The Doors.

3 minutes ago, leodoom85 said:

Hey, if it's not doors, bars are added. No bars?...let's add a lift.

 

Naturally, structures that blocks your path are a way to add variety to the map. Yes, I know that the opposite exists as well but, it's needed for a purpose, even if it somehow annoys the player.

 

@PSXDoomerTricks and Traps would love to talk with you at the start...

That's a really good example of a map that gets it right. Every door leads to a different adventure.

I get that it's trying to tantalise the player, but we see it so often in the starting area that I'd call it a cliche. I've always wanted to make a map that allows players to actually go through all the doors in the starting room, so maybe finally time to do it...

After many years I have decided to try Doom mapping again, but will be starting cold. So much time has gone by I can barely remember how to open Doom Builder. A couple of questions:

Q. How do I add a custom close combat attack to a new monster?

I'm wanting to add the Cyberdemon with two hands (instead of a missile launcher hand) from the Doom Bestiary, but for some reason, this weaponless monster does not have a melee attack! I want him to be totally immune to pain, move a bit faster than standard and deal significant damage up close, even if this means no attack animation - we can assume he is trampling on your head.

Q. How do I lift custom music from a Doom map?

I want to use Beast Island's music from AV. The music doesn't belong to that wad, it's Huline Temple from IIRC Land of the Lost or something like that.

Cheers.

6 hours ago, garudave said:

On topic though, I think Demonic Hordes or No Guts No Glory from Alien Vendetta are the two maps I had the most problems with so far.  They are both very fun and interesting maps though so that lubricated the challenge a bit.

 

I'm still early in my Dooming career, trying to build up to those hard megawads everyone loves.

Agreed, can't wait to play those AV maps along with Dark Dome. I can't beat Post Mortem from HR on UV, mainly because it makes a lot of choices I despise eg mandatory damaging floors, Arch-Viles hidden among Revs, long-ranged Pain Elemental attacks from above etc. Dark Dome seems like a much better-sorted version of this map.

Also agreed on your second sentence - I've been playing PC Doom for 20 years and PSX Doom 25 years, and I haven't beaten or even played some of the top megawads yet.

Favourite Soundtrack: Alien Vendetta, everyone who says otherwise is wrong and had their trousers down at the moment they said it (this is not opinion, this is fact).

Favourite of all time: Alien Vendetta.

Favourite ending: Oh good, I get to choose my favourite "stock Doom 2 text followed by Doom 2 monster gallery". Let's say Kama Sutra for the Geri Halliwell stage show they called map 30.

Haven't played but want to: Crossed loads of these off my list this year. Er, probably Valiant or Deus Vult II.

You love, everyone hates: Loudly being Anders Johnsen's fanboi.

You hate, everyone loves: Bobby Prince music. Jesus, it doesn't even qualify as "embarrassing vintage porn" and certainly doesn't qualify as "heavy metal" (unless genre standards have dropped). Listen to the Thunderforce 3 soundtrack, then Doom 2's soundtrack. I cringe every time my girlfriend hears me playing Doom.

Fondest memory: Playing AV in Legacy co-op on Friday nights. Also, Silver Mirror from Darkhell.

Always come back to: Alien Vendetta. Also, Hell Revealed and Hell Revealed 2 for some reason.

Guilty pleasure: Playing the Hell Revealeds on UV. Miles more fun than modern Sunder-style maps, as the Hell Revealeds actually play like traditional megawads. It's a lost skill for sure.

Has anyone else noticed something about maps that start you in a room with multiple doors?

One or two of the doors can be opened straight away. One door is always a coloured door. One door won't respond and needs to be opened by a switch or trigger found by completing whatever's behind the other doors.

I can't count the number of times I've seen this.

Thought for the day: I'm so glad I'm playing frickin' Resident Evil here.

I quit Sunder for a bit because map 5 sucks so hard, and map 6 looks horrific!

Currently playing the classic megawad S.T.R.A.I.N. which I do not remember at all, except for having PTSD about the white Barons. Am halfway through, and it's half brilliant, half irritating switch/key hunt. It shows its age in this respect, especially the number of Barons in narrow corridors, but the gameplay develops a vicious edge which is keeping me hooked. The new monsters are brilliantly integrated and the better maps are so intricate and flow so well, it's really inspiring, and a nice antidote to modern arena-style maps. Those switch hunts though...

Ghost monsters are retarded.

I have fought them only once ever in 20 years of playing PC Doom. It was the other day on HR map 26, Afterlife. I didn't think GZDoom supported ghosts, so to see a swarm of transparent Imps walking through walls was a shock. For some reason none appeared during my only successful playthrough of the map. That map was insanely hard enough without glitch-related bullshit.

Twilight was the main Plutonia map that gave me trouble during a consecutive playthrough - I'll have to pistol start it and see how it stands up after playing Sunder and HR/HR2. I remember Metal was the other one that gave me a lot of trouble even with all weapons. Ghost Town was rough due to me being on low health for most of it. There was also the shock factor, as Ghost Town on PSX is nowhere near as difficult, despite it being one of the hardest maps on PSX Doom.

There seem to be a lot of maps out there that dump the player into rooms full of chaingunners.

Been playing lots of different megawads lately and some really overdo the "It's a trap!" thing. I wouldn't use an actual ratio if I were you, as that seems a rather mechanical way of doing it. Surprise the player sometimes by letting them get a key without triggering an avalanche of Revenants. A real bugbear is when you're playing a challenging map and every time you find some health or ammo, you get brutalised by an ambush. It's like, "Thanks but I suffered to get here, I'm on 10% health, you give me a soulsphere and here come four Arch-Viles? What's the point of that?"

Never let the risks outweigh the reward, otherwise where's the reward?

On 5/4/2021 at 11:19 AM, PhantomFool765 said:

It's a very direct question, but I genuinely love mapping and have done it for about a year or 2 now not quite sure but have a lot of trouble with it. I'm a very uncreative person and can't really get good ideas often and a lot of my maps end up taking like 24 hours to make just to be a linear map with little to no detail sparse demons and can be beat in like 40 seconds if you know what you're doing. If I had to describe my maps it's if dementia was represented in a DOOM map and we we're at stage 4, like the basic things are there and there's most certainly a map but there's nothing really of substance in it. So I just wanna know if there's anything I can really do to improve my maps when I can hardly take inspiration from other maps because I have a really shitty memory and I can't really make up my own ideas.

It takes me 24 days to make a complete mess of a map that doesn't play well, is loaded with visual errors and people can't beat it in a single sitting because the fights are so poorly thought out.

You are creative and intelligent enough to realise that your mapmaking could use some help, so that is a big step already.

Z is pronounced Zed.

Zed Doom.

Gee Zed Doom.

Kama Sutra is on my to-play list. It must be ridiculously good if so many people want a sequel, but be careful what you wish for, we'll all be gutted if one appears and it's crap.

5 hours ago, DuckReconMajor said:

This might sound a bit silly but I've found messing with monitor settings helps more than the Gamma adjust imo.

I'll try that, thanks.

I've been reading up on threads about difficulty progression and it is shocking to see some people rating HR and HR2 as low difficulty in comparison to some newer mapsets. Looking really forward to trying some.

23 minutes ago, DuckReconMajor said:

@MajorRawne I think platforming is becoming more common in challenge maps so it might be something to practice.

Also, I doubt any "proper" maps scare the pros around here.

 

As a much less skilled player, over the past few years I finally got through the first two Sunder maps. I'll get through MAP03 at some point. Then the next and so on.

I beat map 3 yesterday. It is longer and much more difficult, but not impossible by any stretch. A bit teeth-grinding in places due to Arch-Vile placement.

If only I could figure out how to make map 4 bright enough to see what I'm doing without making everything white...

10 hours ago, Bridgeburner56 said:

Mate, if you think Precarious is that hard then you've got a ways to go before you can call yourself a "Doom god"

Maps like map 32 from Speed of Doom are entry level slaughter. The rabbit hole of hard maps goes far deeper than that.

Edit* Some hard maps/sets to play
Sunder map 15 and onwards
Stardate 20x6 and 20x7 
Swim With the Whales
Bastion of Chaos
Entropy
Flotsam
Abandon

And then ridiculous challenge sets
Frog and Toad
Dimensions
Italodoom
Dark Tartarus

I didn't mean Precarious was hard because of the fights, as stupid and annoying as the fights are - they're easy compared to what came before. I mean I just keep dying and dying, the difficulty comes from navigating the broken pillars which are designed to make you fall off. The way they are broken up also confuses the eye. The difficulty in this map isn't killing the monsters, it's staying alive for longer than two minutes in an environment designed to troll you.

45 minutes ago, Cammy said:

Scythe 2 MAP23 will make you an adult. Later maps in the set are probably harder, but that one is so much more difficult than its predecessors that it still feels to me like the greatest challenge I've overcome.

 

Also Speed of Doom MAP32, although a lot of that map just feels like getting lucky, to be frank. Not that it makes it any easier.

Heard so much about that map and the difficulty spike towards the end that I never got past the first couple of Scythe 2 maps. The first megawad was excellent but again, that difficulty spike.

I could add Sunder map 5 "Precarious" to the list of hardest maps ever, but it doesn't count because the difficulty comes from bullshit. I should probably add that maps with broken or rubbish design don't count, these have to be legit maps, not trolling attempts.

7 minutes ago, Chopkinsca said:

 

None really spring to mind as much as the first Phocas Island.

 

I nope'ed out of Hell Revealed MAP32. It was mostly because it used spawn cubes, and I hate an endless flood of foes to kill.

Never heard of Phocas Island, will check it out.

I agree about HR 32, that's one I have no interest in ever playing due to the spawners. Too stressful.

As per the thread title, what maps have you always regarded with fear, always struggled with, perhaps never beaten on UV?

For most of my Dooming life, Afterlife - map 26 of Hell Revealed - has been my albatross. I haven never been able to get anywhere at all on this map on UV, even when playing through consecutively and starting with all weapons. I never, ever thought I could beat this map from a pistol start. Except on Thursday, I did. Now any map seems possible.

I know there are more infamous maps even in Hell Revealed and its sequel, but I have beaten nearly all of them from a pistol start and am now confident I can eventually beat anything. I feel like I'm turning into a Doom God.

Please think of "proper" maps that you genuinely fear, not ridiculous uber-maps like Nochance.

Sunder. I'm playing Sunder, the megawad that epitomises everything I moan about in Doom: overstyled maps housing slaughterfest gameplay, with irritating ledges to fall off and a mazelike layout.

And I'm bloody loving it.

EDIT: Literally a few minutes later, I can't play map 4 as it's too dark in GZDoom, and the less said about "Precarious" (map 5) the better... map 5 is not Doom.