Impending Doom - Now on idGames!

[Agentbromsnor]

While going through my archive, I found an old map named Impending Doom that I started working on somewhere around 2015.

The original plan was to turn this into a MegaWAD, but as with a lot of my more ambitious projects the progress on these maps slowed to a crawl so I instead opted to finish and perfect this first map.

 

As the title states, it is a Boom format map somewhat in the style of the first Doom (but a little more detailed).

Some info:
Tested using PrBoom+.

All difficulties are implemented (though I obviously recommend UV for the best experience)
4 player co-op support.

6 player deathmatch support.

Uses textures taken from Community Chest 4.

Custom MIDI music track created by EvilDraggie.

Play-tested by Waterkonijn.

Overall play time is around 10-13 minutes.

 

For screenshots, see attachment.

 

I tried cleaning up any unused textures in my WAD using SLADE3, but it nearly borked everything and gave me a r_texturenumforname error. If anybody wants to look into that, feel free to, but I stopped trying and it only saves just 100-something kilobytes anyway.

Enjoy the map, and I would love to hear what you think about it!

 

Download link:

https://www.doomworld.com/idgames/levels/doom2/Ports/g-i/impending

Edited March 20, 2020 by Agentbromsnor
Updated file

[Dimon12321]

The poison section is confusing. When I figured out where to go, I ran out of health and forced to enter IDDQD to finally run through the opened door that leads to SSG and... radiation suit I needed before! The revenant guarding the pass to SSG can get to the corridor with imps, even though he looks higher than the roof.

Also, I didn't notice that the switch in the room with the yellow key activates the lift behind me, so I was just messing around doing nothing before I revisited that room and tried this switch once again.

Berserk pack has no sence, but to restore your health. If your try fighting a revenant and 2 hell knights, you'll probably get your health even lower than you had before the fight. 

I didn't manage to get a rocket launcher and a supercharge, so I finished the map being barely alive with almost no ammo left. For a single-map PWAD, I think it's ok.

 

6.5/10

Edited March 13, 2020 by Dimon12321

[Agentbromsnor]

5 hours ago, Dimon12321 said:

The poison section is confusing. When I figured out where to go, I ran out of health and forced to enter IDDQD to finally run through the opened door that leads to SSG and... radiation suit I needed before! The revenant guarding the pass to SSG can get to the corridor with imps, even though he looks higher than the roof.

Also, I didn't notice that the switch in the room with the yellow key activates the lift behind me, so I was just messing around doing nothing before I revisited that room and tried this switch once again.

Berserk pack has no sence, but to restore your health. If your try fighting a revenant and 2 hell knights, you'll probably get your health even lower than you had before the fight. 

I didn't manage to get a rocket launcher and a supercharge, so I finished the map being barely alive with almost no ammo left. For a single-map PWAD, I think it's ok.

 

6.5/10

 

Instead of going left to the toxic sludge section, you can go right and grab the rad suit you need to pull the orange switch and get the SSG. The radsuit in the SSG section is there so you can properly make it back.

 

When playing on UV, I kinda assumed you would go hunting for all the secrets. Is that wrong of me to assume? If so, I can always place a bit more health and ammo I suppose.

 

Any tips on how you think the ending would be less confusing to you?

[Dimon12321]

52 minutes ago, Agentbromsnor said:

Instead of going left to the toxic sludge section, you can go right and grab the rad suit you need to pull the orange switch and get the SSG. The radsuit in the SSG section is there so you can properly make it back.

 

When playing on UV, I kinda assumed you would go hunting for all the secrets. Is that wrong of me to assume? If so, I can always place a bit more health and ammo I suppose.

 

Any tips on how you think the ending would be less confusing to you?

That was my first try. I didn't know the sector 307 is a dead end when the door is closed.

 

The problem with the radiation suit (thing 44) is, such things are usually placed by the place they are supposed to be used. When I faced a mancubus in the pool, I thought it's not a time to go there and decided to look for a better weapon instead. I took the suit accidentally and, by the time I revisited the pool, it's got expired already. And I found no better weapons because I didn't expect Wolfenstein-style secrets here.

 

A Supercharge secret is difficult to reveal too. I rarely face secrets inside long inconspicuous walls. Corpses usually say nothing and are scattered around just for the entourage.

 

The ending didn't confuse me, but I think it's reasonable to change the metal texture of linedef 2680 because I faced a lot of lifts covered with this texture. Somebody would try to do that and will only open the exit door.

Edited March 13, 2020 by Dimon12321

[Agentbromsnor]

29 minutes ago, Dimon12321 said:

That was my first try. I didn't know the sector 307 is a dead end when the door is closed.

 

The problem with the radiation suit (thing 44) is, such things are usually placed by the place they are supposed to be used. When I faced a mancubus in the pool, I thought it's not a time to go there and decided to look for a better weapon instead. I took the suit accidentally and, by the time I revisited the pool, it's got expired already. And I found no better weapons because I didn't expect Wolfenstein-style secrets here.

 

A Supercharge secret is difficult to reveal too. I rarely face secrets inside long inconspicuous walls. Corpses usually say nothing and are scattered around just for the entourage.

 

The ending didn't confuse me, but I think it's reasonable to change the metal texture of linedef 2680 because I faced a lot of lifts covered with this texture. Somebody would try to do that and will only open the exit door.

 

Hmm, maybe the secrets are a little obscure... Perhaps a minor texture change or misalignment would fix that?

 

I placed the radsuit in the area opposite of the toxic room because I didn't want to make it too straight forward I suppose. I imagined that if you go to the left first, you will bump into the radsuit once you start exploring the other side, at which point the dots would connect.

Edited March 13, 2020 by Agentbromsnor

[Dimon12321]

12 minutes ago, Agentbromsnor said:

Perhaps a minor texture change or misalignment would fix that?

Probably. 

[mArt1And00m3r11339]

I beat your map.

 

[Agentbromsnor]

3 hours ago, mArt1And00m3r11339 said:

I beat your map.

Oh nice! And you found all the secrets, that's really cool and unexpected at this point, haha. I hope you enjoyed it despite the lacking difficulty (which I will try to fix in a subsequent version soon).

[Matias]

Played your map.

It looks good and the custom music is nice

 

i didn't like the structure of the level, it's not fun to have to walk through the entire map back and forth between all the switches, keys and doors.
some backtracking is of course fine and almost expected but in your map almost no matter what key you get or what switch you hit your next objective will be walking through the entire map accompanied by mostly empty corridors. Also the location of the radsuit should be closer to the nukage in my opinion.

I read your earlier comment saying you didn't want to make the map too straight forward but sometimes it's fine to make things "nicer" and less tedious to the player.

 

Overall good map, i had no issues with health and ammo even tho i didn't get 100% of the secrets. 

Here is my gameplay video

 

[Agentbromsnor]

3 hours ago, Matias said:

Played your map.

It looks good and the custom music is nice

 

i didn't like the structure of the level, it's not fun to have to walk through the entire map back and forth between all the switches, keys and doors.
some backtracking is of course fine and almost expected but in your map almost no matter what key you get or what switch you hit your next objective will be walking through the entire map accompanied by mostly empty corridors. Also the location of the radsuit should be closer to the nukage in my opinion.

I read your earlier comment saying you didn't want to make the map too straight forward but sometimes it's fine to make things "nicer" and less tedious to the player.

 

Overall good map, i had no issues with health and ammo even tho i didn't get 100% of the secrets.

Hey, thanks for making a video! That really helps.

I'm sorry you didn't like the non-linear nature of the map. I was trying for a Doom 1 type of structure where a player would revisit previous sections of a level, but preferences are preferences. I'm glad you can still recommend it despite the flaws.

Level design is definitely a learning process and this particular map already went through several small redesigns before. Regardless, I love reading commentary like this because I'm always looking to learn.

Cheers!

[Agentbromsnor]

Update time!

I've updated the download link in the opening post to a new version of the map, which changes a few minor things based on player feedback:
- Made a few secrets slightly less obscure
- Added a few more monsters to spice up the difficulty a bit, mostly for UV
- Added some monsters to the blue key room (honestly, what was I thinking by not doing so before?)
- I moved a bunch of monsters around in the green switch room because it was common for a zombie or imp to get stuck in the secret room (as can be seen in Matias' video above)
- Added some armor and health bonuses

I hope this improves the map some.

Edited March 14, 2020 by Agentbromsnor

[Agentbromsnor]

Now on idGames!

https://www.doomworld.com/idgames/levels/doom2/Ports/g-i/impending

[Rex705]

Fun little map. I don't know what version I got but here is my video :)

 

 

 

[joe-ilya]

Fun map, though kind of sloggish, the plasma gun is introduced way too late and the rocket launcher is in a secret, if you don't find those, you'll be in a world of slow SSG combat and infighting, I think you could introduce the plasma gun earlier and put the rocket launcher in a non-secret area, and put the BFG behind the blue door, would be more fun IMO, as I had to really remember the blue key door and it could be a nice reward for the people who look around.

There's also a problem of too many barons and hell knights, with a map this spacious, it would make more sense to use mancubuses and arachnotrons, they are much more fun to kill in such conditions.

 

But besides those issues, the map was fun, the architecture is nice and smooth.

FDA for IDGames version :

impendingFDAjoe.zip

[Agentbromsnor]

4 hours ago, joe-ilya said:

Fun map, though kind of sloggish, the plasma gun is introduced way too late and the rocket launcher is in a secret, if you don't find those, you'll be in a world of slow SSG combat and infighting, I think you could introduce the plasma gun earlier and put the rocket launcher in a non-secret area, and put the BFG behind the blue door, would be more fun IMO, as I had to really remember the blue key door and it could be a nice reward for the people who look around.

There's also a problem of too many barons and hell knights, with a map this spacious, it would make more sense to use mancubuses and arachnotrons, they are much more fun to kill in such conditions.

 

But besides those issues, the map was fun, the architecture is nice and smooth.

FDA for IDGames version :

impendingFDAjoe.zip

 

Definitely very valid points. I think both weapon and enemy balance are two things I was still struggling with. But hey, practice makes perfect I suppose. :)

Thanks for the demo! I like how right at the end you remembered you forgot to check out the blue key door, haha. Ideally you want to get there before you take on the green area and the red key door, but I can see how that's easily overlooked.

 

I liked the video too, @Rex705! Seems like you had one of those occasional wandering enemies that end up in the Soulsphere secret...
It's surprising to me how many people like playing this with Project Brutality or Brutal Doom. The OpenGL renderer really spotlighted my shoddy texture alignment at the end there though, oof!