Entropy [/idgames]

[Nirvana]

Entropy is a large and challenging Boom compatible (cl9) slaughter map with a gold and orange theme. There are two main routes to take from the start, one for plasma and the other for rockets, both must be completed in order to finish the map, so your decision wont leave you without one weapon. There are 3 new keycards that replace the skull keys, each of which will require you to beat a difficult encounter to get. Once you have all 3 you can get the BFG and will be rewarded with something...else. The map has been completed without BFG and without secrets to ensure it is balanced. Many of the fights will require some puzzling out before you can complete them. Sometimes this means simply pushing a switch when you otherwise wouldn't and other times it can mean something else entirely. 

 

 

This is a long and difficult map, but the other difficulties have been balanced in the hopes that people will use them. I would highly recommend that people play this map in a GL port like GLBoom or GZDoom as there are a few spots where software struggles FPS-wise. The map is still playable in Prboom-Plus but can get jittery in some of the more open areas.

 

Here is a rough guide:

 

UV - I like challenging slaughter maps and enjoy being punished for my mistakes and having to learn from them. I like figuring out strategies to complete fights. 

HMP - I like challenging slaughter maps but I still want to feel in control when I play.

HNTR - I prefer run and gun gameplay with the odd slaughter encounter thrown in. I still enjoy a challenge now and then.

 

Most fights are beatable in a variety of different ways, so try stuff out! Remember to look for secrets!

 

This map contains a custom palette and some custom monster sprites, but all monsters and items behave the same.

 

Thanks to:

Insane_Gazebo for the titlepic

Scotty for the HUD

Pinchy for Pinchtex

Eradrop for his revenant/pain elemental sprites from Avactor

Ribbiks for providing an extended version of the map's original midi.

Bemused for his hours of work on nodebuilders

 

My playtesters:

Ancalagon, Insane_Gazebo, Archi, Killer5, Nevanos, Loveless, Bemused

 

Full credits are in a text file in the wad.

 

Screenshots:

Spoiler

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This has been fairly thoroughly playtested but if there are still bugs let me know here and I'll endeavour to fix them before I upload to idgames.

 

Dropbox Link: (Updated 22/03/19)
Entropy1.2

Idgames:

Entropy

Edited May 5, 2019 by Nirvana

[Paul977]

Great visuals Nirvana

Edited March 14, 2019 by Paul977

[baja blast rd.]

Enjoying this so far. One potential cheese: 

 

Spoiler

In the cyb fight with six boxes (revs and viles): if you stand directly against one of the rev boxes, centered, you are safe. None of those revs fire missiles because you are in melee induction range. The cyb can hit you there, neither can the viles. Just have to worry about revs on other side, but you can spam those down with rockets quickly. I say 'potential' because idk if intended; it was fun to realize it though.

 

[WH-Wilou84]

Currently getting owned in one of the very first battles of the Rocket Launcher route, with the two opposite monster delivery zones and their correspondng switches in the middle. Excellent idea, I must say. :)

This set of bars earlier on can be passed through, not sure if intended :

 

Edited June 12, 2022 by WH-Wilou84
Attachments removed to save space

[Nirvana]

Dang bars, I fixed all the others a really long time ago and must've missed those. 

 

4 hours ago, rdwpa said:

Enjoying this so far. One potential cheese: 

 

  Reveal hidden contents

In the cyb fight with six boxes (revs and viles): if you stand directly against one of the rev boxes, centered, you are safe. None of those revs fire missiles because you are in melee induction range. The cyb can hit you there, neither can the viles. Just have to worry about revs on other side, but you can spam those down with rockets quickly. I say 'potential' because idk if intended; it was fun to realize it though.

 

 

Not intentional necessarily but all the fights were designed to have a bunch of different ways to complete it so it doesn't bug me too much :D

 

Glad you guys are enjoying the map so far!

[Ancalagon]

18 hours ago, Nirvana said:

Dang bars, I fixed all the others a really long time ago and must've missed those. 

 

 

Not intentional necessarily but all the fights were designed to have a bunch of different ways to complete it so it doesn't bug me too much :D

 

Glad you guys are enjoying the map so far!

The fight at the area with the pits (the one that had the stuck imp) has the same cheese but I it's the good kind of cheese :)

[Lorenz0]

This exit teleporter is incredibly easy to miss. I would strongly advise marking it better if you want to avoid making the player wander around for 10 minutes in frustration of not finding any progress.

[Egg Boy]

Well... I had to play on HNTR... with frequent saves. Fun map though. The ending was the only fight I had to try more than twice. I didn't realize you could use those yellow boxes to teleport to the other end of the final arena. I'm not usually the slaughterish type, but I still found it enjoyable, and found my way through it, no matter how save scummy the odds.

Edited March 14, 2019 by Egg Boy
used the wrong word

[Nirvana]

2 hours ago, Egg Boy said:

Well... I had to play on HNTR... with frequent saves. Fun map though. The ending was the only fight I had to try more than twice. I didn't realize you could use those yellow boxes to teleport to the other end of the final arena. I'm not usually the slaughterish type, but I still found it enjoyable, and found my way through it, no matter how save scummy the odds.

Honestly I'm really glad to hear that you decided to still check out the map on a lower difficulty despite not enjoying slaughter and even more glad that you enjoyed it :D 

HNTR was actually tested quite a lot, with the intention that it would give people who don't enjoy slaughter that much, or who don't play Doom to challenge themselves, their own way to experience the map.

 

 

8 hours ago, Lorenz0 said:

Exit

Since rdwpa also missed the exit I've added an extra sign in the latest version, along with some other small changes. Since all of the changes are pretty minor overall, I'm going to wait to release the new version until there are some more things to fix up or until idgames release.

[Egg Boy]

7 hours ago, Nirvana said:

Honestly I'm really glad to hear that you decided to still check out the map on a lower difficulty despite not enjoying slaughter and even more glad that you enjoyed it :D 

HNTR was actually tested quite a lot, with the intention that it would give people who don't enjoy slaughter that much, or who don't play Doom to challenge themselves, their own way to experience the map.

I usually don't play maps in  such a way where I save frequently, but the way the encounters were set up was so intriguing i decided to push on. I specifically like the part where you fight a cyberdemon, but your only means of cover is directly in the line of sight of two angry archviles

Edited March 14, 2019 by Egg Boy

[Btyb88]

Just finished on UV. Very happy with the overall flow and difficulty, especially the final fight. The best part of the map IMO was the path to the BFG. Felt very rewarding when I finally got it. 

[Nirvana]

3 hours ago, Btyb88 said:

Just finished on UV. Very happy with the overall flow and difficulty, especially the final fight. The best part of the map IMO was the path to the BFG. Felt very rewarding when I finally got it. 

Yeah I’m a big fan of secret BFGs and secret encounters, so I’m glad that you felt that way. It was a big part of the map’s concept to have that route in place. Secrets that reward the player with more gameplay are always my favourite! 

[Nirvana]

Ok, since things have died down I'll take this opportunity to bump the thread with an update to the map.

 

Entropy 1.1:

 

-Fixed non-impassable midtex near plasma fight

-Added extra shells and bullets to YK fight

-Added timed voodoo to YK fight in case player doesn't shoot the switches until the end (as per rd's request)

-Some slight cosmetic changes to the map

 

Overall this is a pretty minor update but it fixes a few annoyances player's had initially. 

 

[KVELLER]

Uhh... I appear to be in the middle of a giant HOM when starting the map. I'm assuming that shouldn't happen.

 

EDIT: This is PrBoom+, with both cl9 and the default cl. GZDoom launches it just fine.

 

Edited March 21, 2019 by KVELLER

[Nirvana]

@KVELLER Yeah that was a nodebuilding error on my part. Uploaded a half-built version basically. The new version in the OP is fixed.

 

Two important changes in Entropy1.2:

 

-New extended version of the map's midi provided by Ribbiks

-Map has been rebuilt with ZokumBSP to get some extra frames out of it. Certain sections that gave low FPS should perform slightly better now (they did in testing), meaning Prboom-Plus is more viable as a sourceport choice now. Thanks to Bemused for his tireless nodebuilding efforts for all of us lately! 

[seed]

Just checked this after finally being able to get to it.

 

Pretty good, and the visuals are awesome, although I didn't get very far, for now (took a break after the room with the yellow key when I accidentally saved the moment I died, oops. Bad player is bad, who woulda thought).

[Nirvana]

Saving on death is always awful! If you’re finding it a bit rough then the other difficulties are implemented and are pretty fun too! Good luck with UV though if you decide to continue.

[seed]

1 hour ago, Nirvana said:

Saving on death is always awful! If you’re finding it a bit rough then the other difficulties are implemented and are pretty fun too! Good luck with UV though if you decide to continue.

 

I finished the map, like, 30min. after I wrote that post :v .

 

I like Entropy, just that I couldn't handle some rooms on my first run. The second time I lowered the difficulty from HMP to HNTR and took a different route, which had other weapons in store, so I didn't hit the same wall a second time. I always ended up getting surrounded by the wave of Imps, often blowing myself up with the RL in the process.

 

I never play slaughter on UV by the way (and modern wads where UV is reserved for veterans, that's just out of my league).

Edited March 24, 2019 by seed

[Nirvana]

Well I’m glad you used the difficulty settings - that’s what they’re there for! Not sure if you found the gimmick in that imp fight but the two switches close of the teleporters for about 5 seconds. You can use them to give yourself some breathing room. The fight can be completed without them though! 

 

Glad you stuck it out and enjoyed the map! 

[seed]

42 minutes ago, Nirvana said:

Well I’m glad you used the difficulty settings - that’s what they’re there for! Not sure if you found the gimmick in that imp fight but the two switches close of the teleporters for about 5 seconds. You can use them to give yourself some breathing room. The fight can be completed without them though! 

 

Glad you stuck it out and enjoyed the map! 

 

So THAT's what those switches were for. I thought they just triggered the sequence and nothing more. Could've saved myself from frustration.

[Marlamir]

Had a small play and i love the visual side of this map, looking forward to finish this map. Awesome job man

[Nirvana]

On 3/24/2019 at 9:45 PM, seed said:

 

So THAT's what those switches were for. I thought they just triggered the sequence and nothing more. Could've saved myself from frustration.

Heh yeah, I could have afforded to make it a little more obvious. I guess people are generally a little scared of switches in slaughter maps :D

 

23 hours ago, Marlamir said:

Had a small play and i love the visual side of this map, looking forward to finish this map. Awesome job man

Thanks man, hope you enjoy it!

[WH-Wilou84]

Better late than never - here are my comments on this map after playing it once on UV with saves : really strong offering, with plenty of great and mean fights all along. Beating this map without saves will certainly be a daunting task.
 

Since the BFG9000 is given later here than in the previous big map I played from you (Breathless), there are more opportunities here to focus on cool monster setups and fights without resorting to larger groups or slaughter. In more ways than one, this level is reminiscent of my favorite Ribbiks maps (Stardate 20X6, Swim With The Whales, and some parts of Sunlust) with plenty of good and clever trap ideas.
 

Despite finding 8 secrets out of 9 (IIRC), I could never get the grey key that unlocks the secret BFG9000 (and possibly a cool fight along with it), so I'll replay this map someday. I'll definitely keep an eye out for successful UV Maxes too, when those get recorded.
 

Visually-speaking, this level is gorgeous from the get-go, the orange and black/brown combo never gets old and you also have nice sprite edits to go along with the new theme (I love the assorted grey Baron btw).

Nice work on that.
 

This is the kind of map that I'd love to see bundled in a meatier episode (pretty please ? :)). In any case, this is top-tier content for fans of Death-Destiny / early Ribbiks stuff and it deserves more attention !

[Nirvana]

Thanks for the kind words Wilou! This map was definitely meant to have a bit more 'structure' to it as far as weapon/map progression was concerned, compared to Breathless which was mostly made with the BFG in mind. The setups were also a lot more thought out in terms of little gimmicks and specific ways the fights could be played. Glad you liked the recolours as well. They really helped the theme stay consistent for me.

 

As for the secret, the fight you missed is likely my favourite in the map, so I would like to hear your thoughts on it! It's not as difficult to find as you might think and follows the same 'pattern' as the other secret fights (I wasn't very original with the way you unlock them...)

[Nirvana]

Necrobumping this thread just for people who were waiting for this to get to idgames/final release (I know there were a couple). Link is in the OP.

[Turin Turambar]

Bumping up because it was a runner-up Cacoward, that's how I discovered it. It's a nice little gem of tough-fights-as-a-puzzle.

To my surprise, no one has recorded a video in youtube of it, I was wondering where each secret is. I only got 3 of 9.

[Nirvana]

Only just saw your post Turin, so sorry for the late reply. I'll chuck some information about the secrets in a spoiler tag below:

 

Spoiler

First major secret area is located in the yellow key room. It's a tiny shoot switch on one of the pillars where the cyberdemon is, in the centre of the room. Go back out of that fight after and a small room will have opened with a switch, press the switch and go back into the YK room and the marbface wall will have opened up to let you into a secret fight.

 

You then take the key you get from that fight and head all the way back to the start of the map, open up the key bars and drop down into another encounter. There is a secret fight located here too. Another tiny switch is hidden behind the teleporter that lets you out of the area after the fight is over, which opens a small teleport room that takes you to yet another fight. 

 

Here you get the grey key, which will allow you to get the BFG (after the window fight with the HKs and long-distance cyber friend) and then a surprise awaits you.

 

There are a couple of smaller secrets too:

 

1. When you first enter the main building and go up the tiny lift at the top of the stairs, there is a shoot switch behind one of the pillars to your right, which lowers a berserk.

 

2. In the L-shaped hallway near the first plasma gun fight (with the mastermind and imps) there is a wall that lowers, which sends you on a teleporter to a backpack.

 

3. After the rocket launcher fight the small inset in the wall with the archvile (on UV) close to the entrance of the main building (opposite the tiny lift) gets lowered to allow you to get a soulsphere.

 

4. Just before the imp machine fight you can drop down into the sludge and find a secret teleporter that will net you a blue armour and a backpack.

 

 

Hopefully that's all the secrets. It's been a while since I've made/played it so I might have forgotten something.

[cryoniq]

Greetings. UV-MAX of this masterpiece:

 

 

 

[Nirvana]

@cryoniq Hey man, thanks so much for playing and recording this. Always a pleasure to see people play my stuff and this is a great TAS run. My estimate for UV max was around 40 minutes or so, so this is cool to see that 30 might be possible. There is a vile jump to the BFG that could save a ton of time, especially for a TAS run, so it'd be interesting to see that incorporated. Anyway, thanks again for playing the map and glad you enjoyed it!

[Killer5]

Wow giving away my strats Nirvana. Jk. Sick demo.