BACULUS: 32 Map Scythe / Doom 2 Inspired Megawad (Now On Idgames)

Crunchynut44 said:

This is the best reunion, we should totally finish DP, we can keep out old maps in there for nostalgia purposes XD

That would be an idea although, I believe that if we were to work on demon's paradise again, we should probably start from scratch. Maybe keep our old maps for a sort of bonus wad, I dunno.

IIRC, the maps done for this project didn't all have the same format and thus it would create problems. So yeah, I think it would be best to just start from scratch and agree on a map format we will all use.

But heh, that's just an idea. Finish this first and then, we shall talk about it ^^

Awesome shots, have you thought of using skies that aren't stock textures?

DeathevokatioN said:

Awesome shots, have you thought of using skies that aren't stock textures?

I have, but at the moment I dont have any to work with. Thanks.

Crunchynut44 said:

I have, but at the moment I dont have any to work with. Thanks.

You can always pinch them from other megawads or resource packs. :) See if you can find the Community Chest 4 texture pack, it's one of the largest resource packs around.

I considered doing that, but I wasn't sure if I was allowed. That's great I can though, because I will haha.

Yeah, just make sure you give credit when you're done.

The_Trigger said:

That would be an idea although, I believe that if we were to work on demon's paradise again, we should probably start from scratch. Maybe keep our old maps for a sort of bonus wad, I dunno.

IIRC, the maps done for this project didn't all have the same format and thus it would create problems. So yeah, I think it would be best to just start from scratch and agree on a map format we will all use.

But heh, that's just an idea. Finish this first and then, we shall talk about it ^^

True most likely ZDoom format so as to not have to scrap some of the maps in there already. We should really consider it though, or even just re detail out old maps for the sake of it and release it because why not?

Im trying to get this thing finished, still have to complete some maps, fix some old ones, change the progression haha so much left to do but I feel so close!

Just going to bump this and get the hype train going again as I will be releasing the very very early beta within the next few days. Stay posted.

now these are what i call good looking maps. can't wait to play this

Okay I have edited the original post with a download link for the very very early beta. Enjoy guys :)

Nice nice, will have to wait for the Boom compatible version tho!

kuchitsu said:

Nice nice, will have to wait for the Boom compatible version tho!

Fixed, turned out to be the colour-palette, so I scrapped it. Works fine now :)

Cool. I played the first 3 maps. So far this reminds me of Whispers of Satan more than anything (these TEKGREN bases). This soon will be considered a classic style maybe (people were using similar designs around 10 years ago). I'm glad that wads like this are still being created.

So far Map02 was the most difficult and actually my main enemy was nukage rather than the monsters. I like challenges like this where you have to plan your route based on the placement of radiation suits.

I quickly removed the custom sounds but I almost never like these so it's probably just me being picky.

It seems like you're not using the block sound lines at all? That might be problematic as they allow some interesting scenarios that aren't possible to create otherwise. But maybe you can do fine even without them, we'll see (Reverie also doesn't use them and that's a very good megawad). I think the "deaf" flag in these maps is sometimes misused, however: on Map03 in the blue key trap some shotgunners in the corners didn't initially notice me because I was out of their sight.

Overall this make me kinda excited, I'm definitely planning to play more and then post some demos.

kuchitsu said:

Cool. I played the first 3 maps. So far this reminds me of Whispers of Satan more than anything (these TEKGREN bases). This soon will be considered a classic style maybe (people were using similar designs around 10 years ago). I'm glad that wads like this are still being created.

So far Map02 was the most difficult and actually my main enemy was nukage rather than the monsters. I like challenges like this where you have to plan your route based on the placement of radiation suits.

I quickly removed the custom sounds but I almost never like these so it's probably just me being picky.

It seems like you're not using the block sound lines at all? That might be problematic as they allow some interesting scenarios that aren't possible to create otherwise. But maybe you can do fine even without them, we'll see (Reverie also doesn't use them and that's a very good megawad). I think the "deaf" flag in these maps is sometimes misused, however: on Map03 in the blue key trap some shotgunners in the corners didn't initially notice me because I was out of their sight.

Overall this make me kinda excited, I'm definitely planning to play more and then post some demos.

I appreciate the quick feedback, looking forward to seeing your demos.

This definitely a classic-styled WAD, both gameplay wise and visual wise, mainly due to the fact that i'm not a great mapper :D Yeah to be honest i'm pretty lazy, so I just tag everything as deaf. Though those shotgunners are an easy fix.

3 more maps in. Really digging the custom music so far. On Map06 I got stuck in the secret sector 509 because there is no way to trigger the lift from the other side. Also somewhere here there is a hanging corpse that blocks movement (some decorations do that, you can fix that with a simple DEHACKED patch).

You seem to really like fast doors (action 117) but have you noticed that in Boom monsters can't open these? So, for example, on Map06 you can run away from the castle and the hell knights won't be able to open the door and chase you. By utilizing Boom generalized actions you could make fast doors that are still openable by monsters.

Some levels seem to have elaborate secret areas, I'll have to try to figure them out...

FDAs for the first seven maps. http://www.mediafire.com/download/49y8y3ua5ii8250/baculusb11_fdas_part1_rdwpa.rar. Comp started lagging at the beginning of map07 so that's a slight rerecord.

I thought the first two maps played smoothly for what they are. I ended up accidentally speedrunning map02 lol.

In map03 and map04 the pace starts to slow down a bit. Maybe a few too many non-threatening spectres in map03, a few too many zombiemen you should stop and plink away at.

Map04 had a nice start, but there were a lot of non-threatening pinkies and hell knights -- you can see my eventual reaction to that in the demo. :D

Map05 was my second favorite yet -- a berserk pack makes the pinkies and HKs more fun.

I got stuck in a secret area of map06, during an admittedly boneheaded evasion of a HK. I was enjoying this, but the cacos and HKs around the BK once again don't really add anything.

In map07, the HKs and cacos actually feel threatening. This one was my favorite.

I don't mind the new bullet and shotgun sounds, but I have to admit I dislike the change to the punch sound -- it makes punching things feel a lot less satisfying than usual.

Dang,awesome. I'll have to try this asap.

First ancient aliens and now this? Damn, gotta love surprise megawads xd

Crunchynut44 said:

Fixed, turned out to be the colour-palette, so I scrapped it.

Boom shouldn't have any problems with any palette. Maybe your palette didn't actually consist of 14 palettes (1 base one, 8 red-tinted ones for damage, 4 yellow-tinted ones for pickups, 1 green-tinted one for radsuit) as the Doom engine requires? If so, right-click the palette in SLADE3 and click "Generate palettes -> Doom".

Map08 is broken because you have a superfluous door-open trigger in the little YK flap that blocks the switch trigger behind it. Map06's problem is the sort that can slip through the cracks, but this one makes me doubt that all the maps were tested in prBoom+.

rdwpa said:

Map08 is broken because you have a superfluous door-open trigger in the little YK flap that blocks the switch trigger behind it. Map06's problem is the sort that can slip through the cracks, but this one makes me doubt that all the maps were tested in prBoom+.

Ugh god im sorry, over the past few years I have gone back through all these maps and changed things around, it's been a bit of a convoluted process as I have changed certain things in maps depending if I have changed their slots. Despite me testing every map immediately after its been made it's the small changes I make to things that I forget to go back and test. Then I added speedmaps as well which doesn't help my case.

I'm going to do a really quick god mode speedrun and try and get all of these out and ill upload a new link.

Will reply to everything soon.

I'm just going to take the link down for a couple of hours until I get all of these out.

@kuchitsu: Yeah I don't mind that they can't open doors, my maps tend to require a very passive, ammo conservative play style so this is okay with me. Im glad you liked it, thanks for playing so far. They aren't too elaborate, they all have clues if you explore, I have a habit of hiding things behind pillars and crevices ;)

@rdwpa: Thanks for the demos, I really enjoyed them. It was weird to watch how differently people play the levels not necessarily the way you intended, which is great insight for me to adjust the levels accordingly. I do agree that the early levels are a bit slow, considering I don't give away any heavy weaponry until later on, but the pace really picks up at map 09. Particularly if you play continuously, which I have tried my best to make the WAD play well for as well as pistol starting. Just as advice for my future maps, make sure you check all the corners and behind pillars, that's where I tend to put easy to find secrets and what not.

@scifista42: Well that would explain it, I completely forgot that step. For now I might keep the standard Doom palette, because the skies look much better with it. I'm not really much of an artist so ill probably just leave it at that unless I can get some decent skies made up.


New link is up, fixed as many bugs as I could find. I'm sure I missed plenty, but hopefully nothing game breaking. Sorry for the inconvenience guys.

New link doesn't seem to work. Edit: Hmm, nvm I think Dropbox as a whole is down for me.

Added a mediafire link.

Another point wrt testing is infinite height in combat and also floor bumpiness. ZDoom smooths out movement on bumpy floors (stairs, detailing, etc.), but prBoom+ doesn't.

I died in map21 very early in the pit containing the RL due to a combination of these: the bumpy floor makes it harder to change your momentum when the insta-pop nobles appear, which then get a guaranteed scratch off, unless you know they are coming or something. And then soon afterwards I was blocked and bitten by an unseen infinitely tall caco while maneuvering through the somewhat awkward pillars. In map22 I died at the very start because I attempted to jump into the blood below. Unbeknownst to me, there was an infinitely tall cluster of revenants that immediately gangraped me.

Anyway, the AV reveal at the end of map20 is one of my favorite things. :D But yeah, it's probably the case that many areas need big tweaks. It's generally not sufficient to test maps in prBoom+ just to see if exiting is possible. The actual mechanics of movement can vary greatly, often making certain fights very irritating.

I'll probably hold off on my playthrough a bit until a later version (I skipped ahead to map20), just because these types of things are pet peeves of mine and are probably not going to be too uncommon.

This looks nice. I'm looking forward to playing it once it's a little more complete.

Only got around at playing map 01 cause I'm kinda in the middle of playing ancient aliens and it is taking alot of my dooming time, but, I still wanted to try it out. It's a nice little opener. I like the texture usage and all although, I did find a few misalignements/weirdly cut textures here and there (nothing huge mind you).

Ammo/health balance is just right IMO and I only got to find 2 secrets out of 3. I can't seem to find the third one (I found the way to go outside, pass the lift and I found the rather obvious one too that gave me a box of bullets ^^).

Anyways, pretty nice stuff so far. Will continue on later ^^

Streaming this : https://www.twitch.tv/joe_ilya

I'm doing a continuous playthrough on UV in GZDoom, just taking it easy. So far, it's been quite fun. My only gripe is that I still only had a shotgun through map5, but was faced with quite a few hell knights. Lots of times I just avoided them. Same goes for the baron on map5. I did end up punching him to death later while looking for the yellow key (I've enjoyed the plentiful berserk packs so far).

Maybe I missed a SSG secret somewhere. But considering that there's a chaingun secret on map5 (which I couldn't figure out!), maybe not. I clipped around a bit to find the secrets after finishing the level, but still didn't figure out how to open the door to the box and yellow key room. I'm bad at secrets.

But I'm enjoying the layouts so far: short, interesting, and not confusing. Fun levels to blast through.

Thanks to everyone for playing so far, it's been a lot of fun for me to watch the stream and read your feedback.

It's very appreciated.