Bury My Heart Knee Deep (FINAL version, 12/15/19)

[scwiba]

 

It's here! My final vanilla Doom WAD, (almost) just in time for Doom's 26th anniversary!

 

Bury My Heart Knee Deep is a huge, vanilla, E1-style map for Doom II that takes cues from Metroidvania game progression. It's bursting with optional areas, secrets, and potential sequence breaks. You can follow the "intended" path or make your own way through. You can even complete the whole thing without picking up a single key. If you like the map, I hope you'll play through two or three times and look for different ways you can beat it!

 

In true Metroid fashion, "upgrades" like the rad suit and light amp goggles are "unlocked" at certain points. There are also barriers scattered throughout the map that can only be opened using rockets. These are never required to progress, but they usually provide valuable ammo, health, and gear. Rockets are a precious commodity, so it's up to you: Do you fire all your rockets off to survive a tough fight, or save them to blast open a cache of healing items later?

 

DOWNLOAD BURY MY HEART KNEE DEEP

 

(Note: BMHKD is fully vanilla-compatible except for the savegame buffer. Do not try to save if you're playing in vanilla; it WILL crash.)

 

Trailer:
 

Spoiler

 

 

 

 

 

Screenshots:

 

Spoiler

 

Known Issues:
 

Spoiler

1) Savegame buffer overloads are guaranteed in vanilla and Chocolate Doom.
2) There are a number of special, destructible barriers that rely on Doom's infinitely-tall objects to work. A MAPINFO fix is included to force infinitely-tall objects in many modern source ports, but some others may allow you to run over the barriers and easily access a lot of stuff you shouldn't be able to. ZDaemon is the only specific port that I've confirmed doesn't work correctly here.
3) The MAPINFO lump prevents any actor from moving above or below any other in ports that would usually allow that. Apologies to anyone who's used to being able to run over and under enemies, but... it had to be done.
4) A (Boom) sky transfer is used in three areas. In non-Boom-compatible ports, they'll just have the normal sky.

5) At least two small HOMs can be seen in vanilla due to drawseg overflows. They don't affect gameplay and you'll only see them if you stand in a certain spot and look in just the right direction, so I decided not to agonize over them.

6) Hardware renderers will make several areas, primarily in the Depot, much darker and difficult to navigate than they should be. Software rendering is highly recommended.

 

Changelog:

 

Spoiler

Final Release (kneedeep.wad)

-new TITLEPIC and CREDIT graphics

-the path west out of the room with the red keycard floor is now open from the start (rather than requiring a switch to open) and highlighted by glowing lights

 

Release Candidate 6 (kd_rc6.wad)

-now includes a version of @anotak's handy ZScript for preventing jump/crouch; players can re-enable them after a warning that they may break the map

-two floor lamps now flank the entrance to the STARTAN hallway leading into north Labs to reduce the confusion regarding where to go

-the critical path door into the first room with the stasis chambers (northeast corner of the map) has been made full-bright and glowing

-monster-blocking lines now prevent monsters from interfering with the two secret lifts in the nukage pit at the southeast corner of the map

-the switch that lowers the STONGAR barrier in Depot is no longer repeatable

-one of the boxes on a lowering platform in Depot has been moved slightly to reduce players getting hung up on it

-new demos that don't desync!

 

Release Candidate 5 (kd_rc5.wad)

-reworked the super secret to include an Icon of Sin fight; teleporter to this arena now marked with "no return" message since killing the Icon exits the level

-damaging floors added directly in front of the arachnotron platforms in the final battle; players had previously been able to camp against the platforms, completely negating the threat of the arachnotrons

-the switch that unlocks the radsuits has been moved to the opposite wall and marked more clearly

-small visual changes to two secrets to make them more obvious: the soulsphere secret at the east end of Maintenance and the rocket secret in the Maintenance entrance south of the courtyard

-split the two secret pillars in the large, central room of Labs into two different sectors so that the sound of them lowering doesn't seem to come from the empty air halfway between them

-corrected an error where a nukage sector in south Maintenance did not have a damaging effect, as well as several at the bottom of the long elevator exiting Maintenance toward the SSG secret

-the forcefields in the yellow key bypass area now have a brightness of 255 instead of 0

-some health bonuses are now available if you jump into the stasis chambers in northeast Labs from the secret elevator

-the triggers for the teleporting enemies in the courtyard when exiting from Labs were moved from the west side of the doors to the east side; formerly they could block players from opening the doors

-a bloody splat and armor bonus are placed in front of the second floor-raising switch in the flooded Labs in the hopes of drawing attention to the switch

-in the final arena, two ammo boxes placed on the arachnotron platforms; ammo boxes on either side of the red portal changed to boxes of rockets

-merged a few redundant sectors

 

Original Release (kneedeep.wad)

-demos!

-moved the radsuits in the bypass room for the yellow door 8 units to the west (to prevent players grabbing them through the wall)

-one additional medikit just before the first entrance into the courtyard

-several corpses added to the trapped room at the very south end of the map, as warning

-removed the red key marker next to the north door in the courtyard

-changed the switch in the dark room that turns the lights on into a walkover trigger instead

-corrected a large slime trail on the "Anom-Ctrl" signage

-added Doom's intermission music

 

Release Candidate 3 (kd_rc3.wad)

-removed about 40 bullets and 8 shells from the Maintenance area on UV

-added another two boxes of bullets into the final arena (I'm concerned about players firing off all their bullets/shells before the gun switches)

-three knights in the cyberdemon arena have been switched out for barons on UV to help with the infight

-one less arch-vile in the yellow key arena on both HMP and UV

 

Release Candidate 2 (kd_rc2.wad)

-switched out Doom II's title screen music for Doom's

-replaced the INTERPIC with Doom's E2 victory screen

-removed a few shotgun shell pickups in UV early on to offset the extra shotgunners giving you shells; but added a couple more later on

-slight changes to item placements in a couple secrets

-southernmost red door removed and replaced with a new secret; the double locked doors into that area were causing a lot of unnecessary confusion

-monster-blocking line added in the southwestern nukage area to coax monsters away from a spot where they block you running across the platforms

-the back walls in some of the forcefield generator alcoves have been moved back slightly so you don't have to take damage when firing a rocket in

-fixed a bug where you could turn off the crushers in the pitch black north Labs room prematurely

-widened vertical height of a window in southeast Maintenance so shots from enemies on the other side aren't blocked

-removed secret flags on two rooms past optional blue doors; players were unclear why such obvious areas would be considered secrets

-toned down the trap directly south of the marble monolith (the room where you raise the lift)

-yellow key now remains in view above the flesh portal for more indication as to where you need to go

-bonus super secret boss rush arena added

-put a key marker in the main courtyard for the red key door to Depot and for the blue key door through the nukage -- so you don't have to go all the way to either door to find out you can't get through

 

 

Edited December 15, 2019 by Ryath

[Job]

Yum.

I don't always play E1 style mapsets but, when I do, I prefer them in Doom II. 

[Sparktimus]

Glad you let me test this for you. Very enjoyable map all in all c:

[Catpho]

Juicy promises :)

[wintertowns]

 

Just finished this on UV, picking up all the keys. Man, probably among the most intelligent maps I've played designwise. It wasn't necessarily that difficult, but the scope of the thing makes it really important that it's enjoyable the first time through, and that was definitely accomplished.

 

My only critique would probably be that even if it was fun, there probably were to many resources on UV, but I think that about almost every map I play, so maybe I'm just crazy. I just felt that on UV it would have been nice if it was more of a survival map aswell as an orgie in exporation. Maybe force the player to open more of the "locked" stashes, or else you will run out of juice. Then you can play on HMP if you want the nice cruise. That's really nitpicky though, the balance was really good overall.

 

Anyway, thanks for the good times, cheers.

[Marlamir]

This looks really good for vanilla. Going to check this.

[scwiba]

On 10/2/2018 at 4:12 AM, wintertowns said:

My only critique would probably be that even if it was fun, there probably were to many resources on UV, but I think that about almost every map I play, so maybe I'm just crazy. I just felt that on UV it would have been nice if it was more of a survival map aswell as an orgie in exporation. Maybe force the player to open more of the "locked" stashes, or else you will run out of juice. Then you can play on HMP if you want the nice cruise. That's really nitpicky though, the balance was really good overall.

Thanks for the feedback! This is a really interesting point, because the map was actually balanced all through development for HMP. I only added the other skill settings about a month ago. Playing it myself it felt like the resource balance on HMP was pretty reasonable and on UV it was quite tight. But maybe I just play extra sloppy? I'll keep this in mind and see how other players feel about it.

 

One question for you: did you get the chainsaw or berserk fairly early and use that? Or otherwise spend a lot of time punching? I tend not to melee unless I absolutely have to, so that could explain the difference.

[wintertowns]

57 minutes ago, Ryath said:

the map was actually balanced all through development for HMP

That actually makes a lot of sense. I think I probably could have completed the whole thing without opening any stashes, especially if I had gotten chainsaw/berserk early. I did not really get to use berserk, and I only found a chainsaw maybe three quarters in. I'm a bit of an infighting enthusiast, so that probably factored in, especially in areas with an open layout, but I don't tend to fight meele without berserk/chainsaw. You can watch how I play some UV-max here.

Edited October 3, 2018 by wintertowns

[SP_FACE1]

Just finished this on UV. Phew, I'm quite exhausted! Perhaps the first third of the map I was running out of ammo and had to use all the infighting I could set up. But it eased up after that. Because the map is so huge and explorative I'd say the resource balance depends on the path you choose.

 

I didn't encounter any huge issues. But I think I found a typo?

Spoiler

 

I think I got 40 something secrets so still a lot of replay value. I loved the force fields that compelled to make the decision if you want to exchange a rocket for the items you saw. The writings on the floors were quite helpful as the map is so huge it's easy to get lost.

You have clearly poured a piece of your soul into this WAD!

[scwiba]

1 hour ago, SP_FACE1 said:

I think I got 40 something secrets so still a lot of replay value. I loved the force fields that compelled to make the decision if you want to exchange a rocket for the items you saw. The writings on the floors were quite helpful as the map is so huge it's easy to get lost.

You have clearly poured a piece of your soul into this WAD!

Thanks! Glad you liked it.

 

1 hour ago, SP_FACE1 said:

I didn't encounter any huge issues. But I think I found a typo?

  Reveal hidden contents

 

............lol. Why you gotta embarrass me like this?

 

(EDIT: Quick fix version is up now. Still calling it RC1 since the only change is that floor detail. Unfortunately the one extra letter was enough to cause a visplane overflow -- so I had to come up with something else.)

Edited October 3, 2018 by Ryath

[KVELLER]

Jesus, that was a long map. It's beautifully designed though, so its length wasn't a deal breaker, although I did start to get a bit tired towards the end. So many secrets as well! Unfortunately, I didn't get to explore the dark areas since I never unlocked the lite-amps. Was the switch in a secret? Or did I just not explore thoroughly enough?

 

14 hours ago, Ryath said:

Unfortunately the one extra letter was enough to cause a visplane overflow -- so I had to come up with something else.)

 

LOL vanilla mapping in a nutshell, isn't it?

Edited October 4, 2018 by KVELLER

[scwiba]

1 hour ago, KVELLER said:

Unfortunately, I didn't get to explore the dark areas since I never unlocked the lite-amps. Was the switch in a secret? Or did I just not explore thoroughly enough?

Yep, that's one of the secrets. So far I've only seen one person find it, which is as intended since the light amps open up a few major sequence breaks.

 

If you want a hint:

Spoiler

It requires traipsing through some nukage, so the "intended" time to find it is after the rad suits are accessible. But if you're quick and brave you can get there much, much earlier.

 

[Not Jabba]

Hey, I haven't played this yet, but I loaded it up and noticed that no music plays in G/ZDoom. This is because you've defined the map in MAPINFO but haven't included a definition for music. You just need to add the following to the MAPINFO lump:

 

music "D_RUNNIN"

 

Edited October 6, 2018 by Not Jabba

[HAK3180]

I played on Hurt Me Plenty over three days and finished 90/68/39. This map is just brilliant. I got lost once, but even as I was trying to find my way to the yellow key, I found more goodies, secrets, and monsters. The most ironic thing is that when I finally had an idea as to how to get the yellow key, I instead ended up bypassing it altogether. I think the overall premise of this map suffers ever so slightly from Doom just not having enough lasting goodies that you can get away with withholding for long periods of times. I think it might be interesting with some additional custom weapons and/or items, but I thought this was fantastic, especially mostly within vanilla limitations.

 

My (140-minute) playthrough can be viewed here

[FrancisT218]

@Ryath  I'm getting no music (in ZDooM).

Edited October 6, 2018 by FrancisT18

[scwiba]

2 hours ago, FrancisT18 said:

@Ryath  I'm getting no music (in ZDooM).

 

6 hours ago, Not Jabba said:

Hey, I haven't played this yet, but I loaded it up and noticed that no music plays in G/ZDoom. This is because you've defined the map in MAPINFO but haven't included a definition for music. You just need to add the following to the MAPINFO lump:

 

music "D_RUNNIN"

 

Thanks, folks! I'll fix that right away.

 

4 hours ago, HAK3180 said:

I played on Hurt Me Plenty over three days and finished 90/68/39. This map is just brilliant. I got lost once, but even as I was trying to find my way to the yellow key, I found more goodies, secrets, and monsters. The most ironic thing is that when I finally had an idea as to how to get the yellow key, I instead ended up bypassing it altogether. I think the overall premise of this map suffers ever so slightly from Doom just not having enough lasting goodies that you can get away with withholding for long periods of times. I think it might be interesting with some additional custom weapons and/or items, but I thought this was fantastic, especially mostly within vanilla limitations.

 

My (140-minute) playthrough can be viewed here

That's all fair criticism. And that was a super interesting playthrough. You had a great handle on the map for the most part, and the areas where you did get lost were places I didn't really expect to be hard to navigate. I was really surprised that you weren't drawn to the living hell portal in Depot. That's where the yellow key is, and you were about 2 seconds away from it for half the run. On the other hand, you're the first person I've seen do the sequence break to get into Yellow Sector, so nice job!

 

Also really enjoyed all your thoughts after you finished the map. There will be a lot of changes in the next version based on what I saw in this FDA and others.

[Korozive]

Download link not working.

[scwiba]

2 hours ago, Korozive said:

Download link not working.

Not sure what would be wrong with it. I just gave it a try and didn't have any problems, but I've created a new link in case that might fix it for you.

[Crusader No Regret]

Metroidvania inspired is what caught my attention so I gave this a try.  Blind skill 3 FDA attached if you want to use it for research though I don't think my demo is very interesting.  It's -complevel 9 to guard against ghost monsters.  Slowly wandering around until I die in the "bossfight" for the blue key.  Got overrun by flaming skulls.

 

  Enjoyable stuff, I recorded a second attempt right after the first one but ended up dying in the same bossfight so didn't include it.  That I jumped right back in after failing speaks to the quality here.  I think I'm going to need saves to complete this.  I was a bit ticked finding myself in a lock-in situation but metroidvanias also lock the player into a limited space for boss fights so it works when looking at things that way.

 

  Only a few thoughts for now, may edit in more once I make further progress.  Seeing health behind armor bonuses that I didn't want to pick up yet caused my eye to twitch but this isn't something that will bother most people.  One brainstorm I have is some kind of save station structure.  Would feel more metroidvania-ish to only save and load from select spots.  In the absence of designated spots, it's not really that difficult to make my own.  So it's just a random thought for adding to the metroidvania feel.

 

Edit: 3rd time's the charm, got blue key and moved on.  Sticking to the intended path that doesn't take me through nukage or dark rooms.  Got a rocket launcher at last so I can open up some choice goodies.  Things are opening up more.  It doesn't take long to work out what to do to open up the path to the red key bossfight.  Get into some surprise fights that I handle poorly but manage to live through them.  Then I have a misstep, fall into acid, and melt.  Derp.  Coming back with saves, finding this a compelling environment to explore.

 

Edit 2: Beat this thing.  101% kills with 7 monsters alive (resurrections), 47/64 secrets.  Second bossfight is fun though I did fail a time or two due to mistiming my dance steps with the cyber.  Map really opens up after the second key is acquired.  Soon after, unlocked the radsuit so I could finally explore all those passages I passed up.  Did unlock light amps and found one of the sequence breaks.  Finale got tense since I wasn't abusing midfight saves, emerged victorious at 2% health.  I have a few more specific thoughts but this appears a good stopping point.  Fun map.

 

kdfda_cnr.zip

Edited October 13, 2018 by Crusader No Regret

[Korozive]

On 10/7/2018 at 5:52 PM, Ryath said:

Not sure what would be wrong with it. I just gave it a try and didn't have any problems, but I've created a new link in case that might fix it for you.

It times out for whatever reason. Might be my connection. I am on WIFI in a workcamp. Will it be in idgames in the future?

Edited October 10, 2018 by Korozive

[scwiba]

New release candidate! Check the OP for a list of changes, but it includes some balance tweaks, a couple cool new secrets, and a few changes to clear up confusion I was seeing in demos. Plus larger rocket receptacles so you're less likely to take damage when blowing up forcefields.

 

On 10/9/2018 at 10:01 PM, Crusader No Regret said:

Only a few thoughts for now, may edit in more once I make further progress.  Seeing health behind armor bonuses that I didn't want to pick up yet caused my eye to twitch but this isn't something that will bother most people.  One brainstorm I have is some kind of save station structure.  Would feel more metroidvania-ish to only save and load from select spots.  In the absence of designated spots, it's not really that difficult to make my own.  So it's just a random thought for adding to the metroidvania feel.

 

Thanks for the feedback and the demo! Could you point out where those armor bonuses were? -- I'll fix that if I can. And that save station idea is kind of interesting but obviously out of the scope of the project. Maybe ZDoom allows for editing how saves work? If I ever do a ZDoom sequel I'll look into it.

 

On 10/10/2018 at 5:11 PM, Korozive said:

It times out for whatever reason. Might be my connection. I am on WIFI in a workcamp. Will it be in idgames in the future?

 

It certainly will be! Not sure when, but it'll go up as soon as I'm satisfied everything's up to snuff and all the bugs are squashed.

 

I wonder if a zipped version would be easier to download on your connection, though? Try this one out if you have a chance.

Edited October 15, 2018 by Ryath

[Crusader No Regret]

Where the first non-secret shotgun is, there are stimpacks behind armor bonuses.  Also outdoors near the first entrance to the labs there is a row of armor bonuses with a medikit at the end.  In my demo, I look at them but don't grab them even when my health is low enough to get the full benefit because of my obsessiveness about only picking up armor bonuses at 100% armor or higher.  Nothing "broken", it's the player being picky.

 

Didn't realize it while playing but this map is fantastic about forced items as there are none I encountered.  Another point to praise.

 

I'm certainly not advocating forcing players to only save/load from selected spots.  My mad brainstorm was more along the lines of level architecture that suggests a save station.  Visplane limits are more important to the intention of the map I gather.  In my saves playthrough, limiting saving to safe ground by a cache of radsuits, lightamps, or an item cache with multiple barriers (the ones that require a rocket to deactivate) worked out well for having a spot near an upcoming bossfight and not needing to repeat large sections in the event of failure/undesirable results.  This self-imposed limitation preserves the challenge of individual encounters since I'm not abusing midbattle saving.

 

Oops, rambling again.

Edited October 15, 2018 by Crusader No Regret

[Doomkid]

Mega bump: Is there a finalized version (and accompanying textfile) of this? It looks great. Thanks!

[scwiba]

26 minutes ago, Doomkid said:

Mega bump: Is there a finalized version (and accompanying textfile) of this? It looks great. Thanks!

No final version yet, though I'm still hoping to release before the end of the year. I've got everything basically in a finished state... I just kind of wanted a custom midi for the release version but I can't think of/find one that suits the map. In the meantime, I updated the OP with the most recent RC (and temporary text file) if you want to check it out.

[Immorpher]

1 hour ago, Ryath said:

No final version yet, though I'm still hoping to release before the end of the year. I've got everything basically in a finished state... I just kind of wanted a custom midi for the release version but I can't think of/find one that suits the map. In the meantime, I updated the OP with the most recent RC (and temporary text file) if you want to check it out.

Maybe one of mine might work? 

Anyway I love Metroid so this should be down my alley!

[FrancisT218]

My only criticism for this map is you have too many LIGHTAMPs, IMO. Using them when you don't need it just makes everything not look as good and takes away the atmosphere. The pitch black sections should only take one pair each, and I'd let the player sneak a pair into the yellow key area with Archviles, if he/she desires. But that's all - so I think you should only give three of these: two in labs and one for the Berserk.

 

You did give more radsuits than I needed - but overuse of those doesn't really spoil anything so I don't have the same feelings about watching how many you put in.

Edited December 11, 2018 by FrancisT18

[scwiba]

On 12/9/2018 at 12:44 AM, Immorpher said:

Maybe one of mine might work? 

 

Thanks, these are great! I'm starting to feel like BMHKD's identity is too tied to E1 for any other midis to fit, though. Maybe some sort of medley of KDitD midis would work, but otherwise I'll probably stick with The Imp's Song.

 

15 hours ago, FrancisT18 said:

My only criticism for this map is you have too many LIGHTAMPs, IMO. Using them when you don't need it just makes everything not look as good and takes away the atmosphere. The pitch black sections should only take one pair each, and I'd let the player sneak a pair into the yellow key area with Archviles, if he/she desires. But that's all - so I think you should only give three of these: two in labs and one for the Berserk.

 

You did give more radsuits than I needed - but overuse of those doesn't really spoil anything so I don't have the same feelings about watching how many you put in.

The intention was for there to be one for each player. Granted, I could just mark them multiplayer only.

 

Originally there were two dark areas in Maintenance, but you're right that there's only one use for the light amps there now. So I might compromise down to two light amps maybe. In Labs, there's technically four places you can use them (the blue armor secret, the back entrance to Depot, secret way into Anomaly Control, and for the arch-vile fight as you mentioned), so I wouldn't want to cut any there. 

[FrancisT218]

I was easily able to make it into Depot any way I wanted without needing LIGHTAMP or having the low light level result in frustration, but it's your choice. :) Two max in Maintenance sounds fine.

[Crusader No Regret]

I thought including more light amps than needed was intentional because of it being a "permanent" upgrade.  (shrug)

 

Got about 10 secrets away from a full clear without resorting to IDDT or an editor.  The super secret boss rush is so secret, I haven't worked out how to access it.  Did find all the monsters in the main map unless some were added there since RC1.

[scwiba]

18 hours ago, Crusader No Regret said:

I thought including more light amps than needed was intentional because of it being a "permanent" upgrade.  (shrug)

That's also true...

 

If you want a hint for the super secret:

 

Spoiler

You can find the entrance via a secret in the western bit of Maintenance, past the red doors. Inside there you'll find four skull totems that need to be lowered by finding a corresponding totem in each of the four "boss" rooms (the pain elemental, cyberdemon, archvile, and mastermind arenas).