Depths of Darkness - Wad

[Magicana]

Hey everyone,

 

I'm back again with the second map of my planned episode - This is 'Depths of Darkness'.

 

Occupying the Map02 slot, it was mapped in Boom format. Tested in PR/GL/GZdoom. Additional textures are from Otex by Ukiro. Difficulty settings have been implemented. Requires Doom2.wad to play.

 

Heavy detailing/lighting pass done by MisterSector. If something looks cool in the map, it was probably his work.

 

Freelook/jumping/crouching not required.

 

Edit: New version uploaded. Slightly prettier, more of a nasty trap, and with an additional switch and retexturing to help show the lift off. Thanks again to MisterSector for the changes.

 

Depths of Darkness.zip

 

 

Screenshots below:

 

 

 

 



 



 



 

 

 



 
 

 

 

Feedback welcome.

Edited November 3, 2019 by Magicana

[Simomarchi]

I've completed your map on UV in 7.19 minutes, with 100% kills, 100% items and 100% secrets.

 

Starting with the visuals:

I appreciated mainly the light work here. Having that the map is composed of really small places and that there is not so much detailing, here the light work plays an important role that helps the map to appear better. 

Regarding the detail, it is minimal but it does his work. There are some walls that appear underdetailed (like the orange wall in the upper path) but generally there is always something to look at or to break the linearity of the structures. 

As always I suggest to place the door track texture on a 16 units-length line, because it is not the best texture to look at on a longer line.

 

Thing placement:

I pistol started the map and initially it was a not so simple experience. The weapons where more or less deep inside the level and choosing the wrong path (in my case the right one, the one with the imps and the mancubus) can result in an unavoidable death. Luckily at the second try I found the SSG on the left path and everything after that was good and simple. 

I'm not sure of the usefulness of the arachnotron in that elevated position, since it has never shot to me when I was in the lower part of the level. On the other hand I liked the use of the revenants and the cacos from more than one direction to put tension in the player. 

Also the ammo balance was good, forcing me to use all the weapons. 

A little mistake has been made in the ambush right behind the arachnotron (the one with the lowering floor and the cacos), since the monsters can't see the player immediately (I had to walk towards than to wake them up). This somewhat ruins your ambush since there is no ambush at all.

 

General design: 

I have to admit that half of the time was used to find the last switch to lower the central platform. I am talking about the one behind the yellow lift in the chaingunners room. I really thought that the lift was a simple decoration for the first 3 minutes of wandering. 

Other than that the map plays quite well, there is always something to do an it is never boring (this is probably helped by the small nature of the map itself). It is also, for the same reason, impossible to get lost.

 

Overall another good map. I think that the Otex texture pack can really change the appearance of a map, so keep experimenting with it in other environments. 

Edited October 17, 2019 by Simomarchi
Changed the answer removing the thing regarding the Otex texture pack, as pointed out by Aurelius

[Aurelius]

24 minutes ago, Simomarchi said:

First of all I'm quite sure that Ukiro has not allowed us to actually import his textures inside our wads.

 

This was before 1.0 was released. The current version can be included within the wad, among other things.

Edited October 17, 2019 by Aurelius

[Magicana]

7 hours ago, Simomarchi said:

I've completed your map on UV in 7.19 minutes, with 100% kills, 100% items and 100% secrets.

 

Starting with the visuals:

I appreciated mainly the light work here. Having that the map is composed of really small places and that there is not so much detailing, here the light work plays an important role that helps the map to appear better. 

Regarding the detail, it is minimal but it does his work. There are some walls that appear underdetailed (like the orange wall in the upper path) but generally there is always something to look at or to break the linearity of the structures. 

As always I suggest to place the door track texture on a 16 units-length line, because it is not the best texture to look at on a longer line.

 

Thing placement:

I pistol started the map and initially it was a not so simple experience. The weapons where more or less deep inside the level and choosing the wrong path (in my case the right one, the one with the imps and the mancubus) can result in an unavoidable death. Luckily at the second try I found the SSG on the left path and everything after that was good and simple. 

I'm not sure of the usefulness of the arachnotron in that elevated position, since it has never shot to me when I was in the lower part of the level. On the other hand I liked the use of the revenants and the cacos from more than one direction to put tension in the player. 

Also the ammo balance was good, forcing me to use all the weapons. 

A little mistake has been made in the ambush right behind the arachnotron (the one with the lowering floor and the cacos), since the monsters can't see the player immediately (I had to walk towards than to wake them up). This somewhat ruins your ambush since there is no ambush at all.

 

General design: 

I have to admit that half of the time was used to find the last switch to lower the central platform. I am talking about the one behind the yellow lift in the chaingunners room. I really thought that the lift was a simple decoration for the first 3 minutes of wandering. 

Other than that the map plays quite well, there is always something to do an it is never boring (this is probably helped by the small nature of the map itself). It is also, for the same reason, impossible to get lost.

 

Overall another good map. I think that the Otex texture pack can really change the appearance of a map, so keep experimenting with it in other environments. 

 

Well hello, long time no see! Hopefully improved since the last map of mine that you played :P.

 

One of the things I like to do when I've got multiple paths is to not disadvantage the player too much by choosing one over the other. However, it was a little unavoidable this time. My general design thought as I was going was danger below, supplies up top. However, going up top also starts unleashing hordes below (Each of the main two lifts have a w1 lower floor that lets out revenants). I then had the mancubus/arach up top partly as blockers so you can't just speed around, and partly because they're both turrets that mean you can't just hang out on top too long without paying for it.

 

With the caco trap, would you recommend having them already awake? I like having the alert sounds, but having them eerily float out would work too. Or I guess try and position them right at the edge so they've got a LOS.

 

You're one of two people now to get a bit confused with finding that switch. This is planned as part of an episode, and the first map also uses it as a lift texture (And it's an unavoidable lift). Maybe having the skull switch to activate it (Those got added in late in development, I never though about changing this one) would work better?

 

6 hours ago, Aurelius said:

 

This was before 1.0 was released. The current version can be included within the wad, among other things.

 

Exactly right. I waited for the final release that allowed bundling before I started mapping.

[Simomarchi]

On 10/17/2019 at 11:16 PM, Magicana said:

long time no see

Yeah sometimes I have to stop doing an hobby in order to keep the interest in it high without get bored. Also I started to learn how to master a d&d adventure so that's another thing that I have to follow. 

 

On 10/17/2019 at 11:16 PM, Magicana said:

having the skull switch to activate it

A switch is always a good idea to show to the player that there is an action to do in a specific place. 

 

On 10/17/2019 at 11:16 PM, Magicana said:

would you recommend having them already awake?

Well, I don't know why but they where not alerted at all in ZDoom. I literally had to walk in front of them to wake them up (if there is an alert sound line that is supposed to trigger the trap).

[Magicana]

1 hour ago, Simomarchi said:

Yeah sometimes I have to stop doing an hobby in order to keep the interest in it high without get bored. Also I started to learn how to master a d&d adventure so that's another thing that I have to follow. 

 

A switch is always a good idea to show to the player that there is an action to do in a specific place. 

 

Well, I don't know why but they where not alerted at all in ZDoom. I literally had to walk in front of them to wake them up (if there is an alert sound line that is supposed to trigger the trap).

 

With the cacos, they were originally placed next to the switch and set to ambush, which I didn't change when they went to those hideyholes.

 

The new version has an updated trap.

[Rex705]

Fun little map :)