Demonastery - RELEASED! (Now on idgames)

[Nootrac4571]

It's done!

 

***** idgames link: https://www.doomworld.com/idgames/levels/doom2/Ports/d-f/demonastery *****

 

Text file:

===========================================================================
Advanced engine needed  : Boom
Primary purpose         : Single play
===========================================================================
Title                   : Demonastery
Filename                : demonastery.wad
Release date            : 20th October 2018
Author                  : Nootrac4571

Description             : A medium sized, architecturally detailed
                          single-player map which twists back in on itself
                          several times, set in a crumbling monastery made of
                          marble and corpses.

Additional Credits to   : Jimmy (James Paddock) for the excellent music
                          Obsidian for the DeHackEd code
===========================================================================
* What is included *

New levels              : 1
Sounds                  : No
Music                   : Yes
Graphics                : Yes
Dehacked/BEX Patch      : Yes
Demos                   : No
Other                   : No
Other files required    : None


* Play Information *

Game                    : Doom 2
Map #                   : 01
Single Player           : Designed for
Cooperative 2-4 Player  : Player starts only
Deathmatch 2-4 Player   : Player starts only
Other game styles       : None
Difficulty Settings     : Yes


* Construction *

Base                    : New from scratch
Build Time              : About four months on and off
Editor(s) used          : GZDoom Builder
Tested With             : PRBoom, PRBoom+, ZDoom, GZDoom, Eternity Engine


* Copyright / Permissions *

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0
International License. To view a copy of this license, visit
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

You are free to copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format;
and remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even
commercially. If you do so, you must give appropriate credit, provide a link
to the license, and indicate if changes were made. You may do so in any
reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses you

 

Demonastery is a single level wad for Doom 2 (Boom compatible ports,) set in a crumbling monastery made of marble and corpses.

 

I've added a whole bunch of new textures and a few new decoration sprites, but nothing that changes gameplay.

 

Jumping/crouching is disabled.

 

Credits to Jimmy for the music, and Obsidian for converting my original DECORATE stuff into DeHackEd.

 

And thanks to everyone who gave me feedback in this thread, it's very much appreciated.

 

Screenshots:

 

 

 

..........

 

Original post:

 

***** EDIT 3: New version! Again! *****

 

Demonastery v0.4!

 

Ok, so I think I'm about done with the map, aside from music (which is on the way) 

 

I've tested with Zdoom, GZDoom, PRBoom, PRBoom+ and the Eternity Engine and it all seems to work ok.

 

Link: https://www.dropbox.com/s/ri1z67mg2n0j4gc/Demonastery04.wad?dl=0

 

Changelog since the last update:

 

* Thanks to Obsidian, (Thanks, Obsidian!) it should now be entirely Boom compatible. (I was aiming for Limit Removing, but Crispy Doom doesn't seem to like a few of my more creative uses of linedef actions, so I can't say that with confidence.) 

 

* A few more aesthetic changes - I'm at the point now where I'm just fiddling with stuff for the sake of it, and really need someone to tell me to stop.

 

* It now has a much better sky texture and a custom title screen.

 

* I've made UV a little bit tougher and balanced the other difficulty levels a bit better - In particular the third key area is now much tougher on UV, but a lot more forgiving in lower difficulties, and there's a little bit less health and armour in key positions throughout in UV.

 

* I've slightly adjusted the backpack secret to avoid a potential accidental cheesing which could make 100% kills rather frustrating to track down.

 

If anyone wants to give it another go just to check for compatibility/obvious broken stuff/egregious balance oversights etc, then I'd much appreciate it! I'm hoping this is the last update before calling it done.

 

Thanks for your feedback everyone! I've already started playing around with a couple of new maps, so I'm super eager to move on to one of them.

 

Also: If someone wanted to assume I'm a total idiot who knows nothing, and explain how I'd go about sharing the custom textures/sprites with you all, and submitting the map to /idgames I'd be incredibly grateful. And - when it's 100% done, should I post a new thread with the release version, or just update this one?
 

 

***** EDIT 2: New version! *****

 

Demonastery Version 0.3

 

Changelog:

 

* Lots of slight balance changes

* Rejigged the Arch-Vile key area to make it tougher

* Prettied up a few areas that looked a little dull

* Made it harder to camp by the switch in the final battle

* Many slight texture fixes

 

Link to version 0.3: https://www.dropbox.com/s/z2nzxkbiriw0sat/Demonastery03.wad?dl=0

 

Feels like I'm getting close to calling it done - let me know any comments!

 

 

***** EDIT: New improved version! *****

Thanks for all your feedback guys, I've made a few little changes based on your comments:

 

Demonastery Version 0.2
 

Changelog:

 

* Altered the BFG secret to no longer require mouselook
* Added a way back from the final area, for 100% hunters
* Added a few more monsters in certain areas, and swapped a few of the barons for other beasties.
* Made a sky texture - it's not amazing, I might improve it.
* Slightly tweaked the armour balance
* Made the gore areas a little tougher
* Added a railing to prevent players cheesing the backpack secret
* Many minor texture fixes

 

I've also temporarily changed the music to D_IN_CIT - I still intend to sort out some custom music, but this'll stop D_RUNNIN from driving everyone mad in the meantime.

 

Link to latest version: h̶t̶t̶p̶s̶:̶/̶/̶w̶w̶w̶.̶d̶r̶o̶p̶b̶o̶x̶.̶c̶o̶m̶/̶s̶/̶f̶7̶q̶h̶a̶d̶q̶j̶d̶1̶c̶o̶e̶1̶5̶/̶D̶e̶m̶o̶n̶a̶s̶t̶e̶r̶y̶0̶2̶.̶w̶a̶d̶?̶d̶l̶=̶0̶

***** new link above

 

Tested in Zdoom and GZDoom: Uses vanilla sector and linedef tags only, but has DECORATE and MAPINFO lumps. These are mostly cosmetic though (There's one area with a handful of solid pillars, but it's not game-breaking if they're missing.)

------------------------------------------

 

Original post:

 

 

Hi all! I'm a long time fan of Doom, but this is my first time posting on Doomworld. Apologies if I've got everything wrong.

 

If not - Hello! I've made a level, and I'm kinda hoping some of you might like to give it a play and give me some honest feedback.

 

So!

 

Here's my hopefully nearly finished work-in-progress level - I was inspired to make it after playing the fantastic Brigandine, and I'm sure the influence shows.

 

H̶e̶r̶e̶'̶s̶ ̶a̶ ̶l̶i̶n̶k̶:̶ ̶h̶t̶t̶p̶s̶:̶/̶/̶w̶w̶w̶.̶d̶r̶o̶p̶b̶o̶x̶.̶c̶o̶m̶/̶s̶/̶e̶o̶t̶u̶9̶u̶3̶s̶h̶t̶5̶e̶s̶o̶a̶/̶D̶e̶m̶o̶n̶a̶s̶t̶e̶r̶y̶.̶w̶a̶d̶?̶d̶l̶=̶0̶ 

***** New link above

 

It's a dense interconnected level that doubles back on itself several times. Mostly run-and-gun, with a few regularly spaced set-piece "challenge" rooms.

 

All three difficulty levels are catered for, but it was made with Ultra Violence in mind.

 

There's a bunch of new textures and a few new decoration sprites - I've tried hard to make them fit with the classic Doom 2 aesthetic though.

 

I've spent about three months, on and off, tinkering away at it. I think it's nearly done? I hope so, anyway.

 

Uses DOOM2.WAD

 

O̶n̶l̶y̶ ̶t̶e̶s̶t̶e̶d̶ ̶i̶n̶ ̶G̶Z̶D̶o̶o̶m̶ ̶s̶o̶ ̶f̶a̶r̶ ̶-̶ ̶i̶t̶ ̶d̶e̶f̶i̶n̶i̶t̶e̶l̶y̶ ̶r̶e̶q̶u̶i̶r̶e̶s̶ ̶a̶ ̶l̶i̶m̶i̶t̶-̶r̶e̶m̶o̶v̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶s̶o̶u̶r̶c̶e̶ ̶p̶o̶r̶t̶,̶ ̶b̶u̶t̶ ̶I̶'̶v̶e̶ ̶o̶n̶l̶y̶ ̶u̶s̶e̶d̶ ̶v̶a̶n̶i̶l̶l̶a̶ ̶l̶i̶n̶e̶d̶e̶f̶ ̶f̶l̶a̶g̶s̶ ̶a̶n̶d̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶r̶e̶'̶s̶ ̶n̶o̶ ̶s̶c̶r̶i̶p̶t̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶o̶r̶ ̶a̶n̶y̶t̶h̶i̶n̶g̶.̶

***** See above

 

Assorted notes:

 

* I could carry on adding architectural detail until the end of time. It's already ridiculous, somebody needs to physically stop me. Please let me know if any of the little details hamper gameplay.

* There are still loads of minor texture alignment issues all over the place - I'm slowly working through them.

* I've no idea if it's too hard or unfair or if there are enough or too few or too many health packs/ammo. I've pitched UV at the upper limit of my own skills, and I'm certainly no Doomgod. But I'm too close to to it to be able to tell any more.

* I wanted the BFG secret to be hard to find, but it's possible it's just ridiculous; I'd welcome any feedback.

* My monitor is crappy and old so I'm not sure if the whole thing is lit ok, or too dark, or obnoxiously bright. Again, any feedback is very welcome.

 
 

 

 

 

[/spoiler

Edited November 6, 2018 by Nootrac4571

[Tango]

this looks incredible! absolutely beautiful. have you considered using a custom sky for the map?

[omegamer]

Gonna check this out tomorrow, looks stunning!

[Marlamir]

Stunning screenies man, gonna check this soon

[Nootrac4571]

Tango - Yes I totally have, along with some custom music and a nice title screen. If I can justify the time!

[leodoom85]

The resemblance is uncanny. Astounding work.

[Swalzi]

The second screenshot with the corpses stacked on top and stuffed into the crumbling masonry looks radical. Awesome screenshots!

[Breezeep]

Those midtextures are 👌

[wintertowns]

As a fellow fan of Brigandine, I appreciate this. Love me some gothic woodmaps with lots of detail, and I liked most parts of your map because of the same reasons I liked Brigandine.

 

Some gameplay-related thoughts:

 

1) I could not find the BFG without enabling mouselook. I don't know if this is intended, and if it is, I'd prefer if it was possible without it, or that you specifically specify mlook as a requirement for playing this map. I may also be stupid and not using the environment correctly. It was a cool secret though, and it felt good to really "earn" the BFG.

 

2) If you are going for a dense feel, I think that you could easily fit some more enemies in there. I especially would have liked some more monsters spawning in or ambushing you when parts of the map are being reused, and the player has to backtrack corridors to reach main points of interest

 

3) I could not find a way to backtrack the level from the last room without the use of cheats. That may be intended, but personally I would've liked that to be a possibility. Just for cleaning up missed enemies and/or secrets.

 

4) It could be a little to generous to give away a blue armor so easily. I would at least consider making it a green one on UV.

Edited September 16, 2018 by wintertowns

[elend]

Dear lord, this looks amazing! Love your use of flesh and spine textures, absolutely gorgeous! Gotta try this back at home.

[Krull]

.

Edited September 2, 2023 by Krull

[RJ01]

恶魔城的风格，很赞 OH  GOOD

[SleepyVelvet]

I'm staring at that last pic:  Using literal, organic spine in an architectural way like that looks friggin cool.

[elend]

2 hours ago, RJ01 said:

恶魔城的风格，很赞 OH  GOOD

你是不是中国人？

[Jimmy]

That was incredible. I need to go back and play through it all over again so I can find all 4 secrets. Amazing work here!

 

The new textures are tastefully done and fit right in, bolstering the already grandiose architecture. The new decorations are also amazing - the first gore area had me stunned momentarily. The little piles of flesh and corpses are so simple yet so effective - there's a level of attention to detail here on par with Doom Eternal, I think! And this is all limit-removing? I honestly felt like I was playing a UDMF map for how creatively constructed and nuanced it was. The fastidious detail and lighting, especially the microdetails like the bloodfalls flowing into cobblestone cracks and outlets, made me smile a lot. Beautiful work. Viggles would be proud.

 

Played on UV - gameplay-wise I can barely fault it. The map didn't give me an SSG, and the BFG teased me every time I saw it (I didn't wind up getting it), but all the same it was a blast. I think the experience was hampered early on only slightly by a possible overuse of barons, and only furnishing the player with the shotgun/chaingun. There's also an abundance of shell ammo, implying the shotgun should be the weapon of choice here, but the knights/barons don't make for hugely fun combat with just that. This made for some dicey encounters, but once I got the RL (and plasma), the difficulty curve flattened quite a bit - my greatest enemy was often just the limited space in some areas that kept me on my toes and made me act very consciously in regards to my rocket usage. The map was a ton of fun overall. No particularly problematic balance issues that I can see!

 

Just one more small complaint: this map needs a new music track! The map's setting of an open-air blood-sea fortress stuffed with gore is an imaginative one, and the stock track doesn't do it justice at all. I am willing to help out here if needed, whether that's in terms of picking one out for you, or making one myself.

 

To everyone else: This is a must-play!

[Nootrac4571]

wintertowns:

 

1) Very good point - It was designed and tested with mouselook in mind, but there's no reason why it should be mandatory - I'll adjust the BFG secret to make it possible without.

 

2) Agreed - I'll drop a few more monsters down in backtracky areas.

 

3) I didn't want the player to be able to run away from the final fight, but I could totally make the way back out reopen after a while for secret/monster/item hunting.

 

4) Noted. I might rejig the armour balance a bit.

 

Jimmy:

 

Haha, even as I was making the bloodfall details I was chuckling to myself, thinking "now this is just silly."

 

There is an SSG quite near the start - I think I'll add another one a bit later in case people miss it though.

 

As for music - Adding a custom track is definitely on the list. Ideally I'd like something that sounds like a classic Doom track, using the same instruments and everything, but I don't really know how to go about doing that.

[Kristian Nebula]

Very innovative and fresh-looking design and use of textures! Keep up the good work man! :)

[DooM_RO]

That is just unbelievable!

[Obsidian]

On 9/17/2018 at 6:58 PM, Jimmy said:

The map didn't give me an SSG

 

It actually does! There's a room in the early part of the map where you can jump through a couple hoops to get it.

 

As for me, I thought this map was pretty excellent as well. Like Jimmy I absolutely loved the new textures and decorations (wouldn't mind using them myself sometime down the road if you're fine with that :P) and the architecture makes the most of it. Wintertowns made some excellent points already and I only have a couple of things to add:

 

-The arenas with each key felt a little anticlimactic on Ultra-Violence: the Faux-bos Anomaly one was cute, but the other ones weren't all that challenging. Some swarming small monsters in the first area and a second Archie in the third area would probably evoke more reaction, but that's just my take on it.

 

-Similar to the first point, the final fight could use a little more beefing up. It's not too difficult to simply camp in the switch area and fire rockets till shit stops moving: still fun, but probably not the experience you were looking for. :P Some Revs teleporting into that area could probably put the scare in people: you probably don't even have to add extra, just use the ones already put aside for the fight.

 

-I found a few slime trails: pretty common in maps with high complexity. The first is in the second key arena and the second is in the final arena.

 

Spoiler

 

And I think that about covers it! None of these are game-breaking or get in the way of the fun and, to be perfectly honest, this is an amazing effort from someone who's just gotten into Doom mapping. You've done an excellent job and I'd be keen to see what other stuff you make.

Edited September 20, 2018 by Obsidian

[Nootrac4571]

11 minutes ago, Obsidian said:

-The arenas with each key felt a little anticlimactic on Ultra-Violence: the Faux-bos Anomaly one was cute, but the other ones weren't all that challenging. Some swarming small monsters in the first area and a second Archie in the third area would probably evoke more reaction, but that'sjust my take on it.

 

Yeah, I'll add a few imps or something to the revenant room.

 

Not sure about a second Arch Vile; it's a personal thing, but I just don't find fighting more than one of them at a time very fun. If you killed him quickly you might not have noticed the fun surprise in that room: the corpses aren't just decorative and he will resurrect them if you let him. Maybe I just need to move them closer to him so he bumps into them quicker. I'll experiment.

 

16 minutes ago, Obsidian said:

-Similar to the first point, the final fight could use a little more beefing up. It's not too difficult to simply camp in the switch area and fire rockets till shit stops moving: still fun, but probably not the experience you were looking for. :P Some Revs teleporting into that area could probably put the scare in people: you probably don't even have to add extra, just use the ones already put aside for the fight.

 

Point taken, that's a great idea.

 

18 minutes ago, Obsidian said:

-I found a few slime trails: pretty common in maps with high complexity. The first is in the second key arena and the second is in the final arena.

 

Good spot, I'll fix them.

 

19 minutes ago, Obsidian said:

I absolutely loved the new textures and decorations (wouldn't mind using them myself sometime down the road if you're fine with that :P)

 

Absolutely! I'd love to see other people using them. There's also a few more that didn't find a place in this level. What's the best way of sharing them?

[DooM_RO]

What surprises me the most is that no one has thought of using cut-out textures to make arches and such. I'm sure that's going to change because of your map!

[DooM_RO]

@Nootrac4571

 

As for music, I think something with chanting and organs would work better but that's just me.

 

Something like this:

 

 

Edited September 17, 2018 by DooM_RO

[Misty]

You really need add mapinfo to switch off jumping and crouching in your map, so nobody will break intended things on zdoom related ports. Besides music, you should add cool skybox to make your map shine, but it's more my personal opinion. Anyway, congratulations for releasing this beautiful map. 

[AL-97]

@Nootrac4571 Am I correct assuming that mouse look is required for BFG secret? Do you think it would be worth mentioning it for people who usually play without it?

 

Was able to trigger the backpack secret from the platform above the Red Skull buttons, which is probably not the intended way. However, the lift triggered by those buttons is too slow to be able to jump on the backpack teleporter. Unless I am missing something.

[Jimmy]

 

6 hours ago, Nootrac4571 said:

Jimmy:

 

Haha, even as I was making the bloodfall details I was chuckling to myself, thinking "now this is just silly."

 

There is an SSG quite near the start - I think I'll add another one a bit later in case people miss it though.

 

As for music - Adding a custom track is definitely on the list. Ideally I'd like something that sounds like a classic Doom track, using the same instruments and everything, but I don't really know how to go about doing that.

 

Oh heh, if there's an SSG near the start then that might mitigate my concerns with the balance in the first few areas. Though I'd probably still slightly take down the number of barons used. :P

[Marlamir]

I just finish your map and i love it. Beautiful map, Cool gameplay. You did great job man. Now im maybe going to sound like nitpicker but i noticed two probably wrong textures

here:

Spoiler

 

[an_mutt]

This was a really great map, nice job! One particular highlight was the plasma rifle secret and how it let me walk around the castle exterior beforehand to get to it - I feel like teleporting in some monsters after picking up the rifle would add to the nice reward aspect of the whole bit. Y'know, a bunch of small things to blow away as a nice reward.

 

With regards to music I just loaded up Waiting for Romero to Play and that fit really nicely for me, so I can suggest this if you're looking for something that isn't too out there in terms of a custom track.

[Steve D]

2 hours ago, an_mutt said:

With regards to music I just loaded up Waiting for Romero to Play and that fit really nicely for me, so I can suggest this if you're looking for something that isn't too out there in terms of a custom track.

 

That's exactly what I used. :)  It's my go-to IWAD track for atmospheric maps, especially when I'm on the headphones. It's nice and calm and doesn't pound my ears.

 

My commentary on this wonderful map is forthcoming, once I've had brunch. ;) 

[Nine Inch Heels]

Finally got around to playing this. Took me around 20 minutes to finish this map, which includes a lot of trying to figure secrets out (or figuring out if something was a secret to begin with in case of the chaingun for instance), when I spotted something. Only secrets I got in the end were the soulsphere secret and the backpack, I believe.

 

The BFG secret I have no idea how to get. I spotted all shoot swiches in the rooms with the keys, but one of those seemed impossible to hit without using freelook/-aim, at least I couldn't seem to find a position from where I could hit it without. I did not yet look at the map in a builder, but it would be nice to know if freeaim is a must-do, or if I've been missing something important.

 

As for fights, there is some fun stuff around, none of which is particularly threatening as there's usually enough room to move around, and resources aren't too scarce either. I agree that some of the barons in open spaces might be too many HitPoints for too little threat overall, and I'd also suggest just a few more revenants in some areas to spice things up just slightly. The backpack secret for example would do well with 3-4 revs in it, I believe.

[leodoom85]

@Nootrac4571 I just played your map and, from the aesthetic alone, it looks impressive...especially the meaty-skin architecture with that mech-organic evil switch. I have to agree with Nine Inch Heels with the gameplay. It was fairly hard but some of the fights were kinda easy. So, adding a few high-tier monsters will spice the fights in a good way, making it more satisfying. Overall, it was a fun map really....AH, I'd appreciate you to add an appropiate custom midi, that will make the map even better!!! Last thing, I recorded a video of your map. Expect to watch it soon :)