[WIP] Going To Hell Megawad / Testing

[Walkerrr]

Hello!
I am creating a Wad that will consist in maps for Doom2 Configuration
thought about the existence of three different atmospheres for this wad.

1 -Tech-Base  2- Hell  3- Castle. (But still nothing established!)

The purpose of this post is to find share with you the progress of this levels and get reviews and comments to improve the project
I'm also interested in getting help, either maps or cooperation with maps.

The goal is to create a complete wad with 32  maps for Doom 2.  Any help will be welcome.

So far I have made 13 maps, 10 maps with the theme "Tech-Base" and 3 with the theme "Hell"

 

Name: Going To Hell

Map Format: Doom2

Ports: GZDOOM, ZDOOM, Zandronum

Iwad: Doom2

MAPS: MAP01, MAP02, MAP03, MAP04, MAP05, MAP06, MAP07, MAP08, MAP09, MAP10, MAP11, MAP12, MAP13, MAP14(Unfinished)

Gameplay: Single play

Difficulty Settings: Yes (For now two, "hurt me plenty" and "ulta violence")

Multiplayer Placement: No

Requirements: No Jumping, No Crouching, Freelook

 

Any help or comments will be appreciated! and they would help me too much

maps can be played continuously of with pistol start.

 

I hope you enjoy what has already been done

 

Here some images:

 

MAP01

MAP02

MAP03

MAP04

MAP05

MAP06

MAP07

MAP08 

MAP09

MAP10

MAP11

MAP12

MAP13

MAP14 

MAP15

 

At the moment it is playable with "Ultra Violence" and "Hurt me plenty".

Download Link: https://www.dropbox.com/s/fng5kscrsnosxyv/GTH_TEST_15.wad?dl=0

 

Thank you, I hope you like it!

Please comment! :)

Edited September 1, 2020 by Walkerrr
Added Download Link

[Biodegradable]

These look pretty nice, but maybe that's cos I have an affinity for tech-base maps hehe

Edited June 16, 2020 by Biodegradable

[Aurelius]

You have to be more specific when describing your map format. If you say "Doom 2", some people could interpret that as vanilla Doom 2, and while the gameplay and map format itself might be, the set will certainly not run with every vanilla supporting port. Looking at your WAD file it seems that more than half of the textures are PNGs, an ANIMDEFS lump is included and you mentioned freelook as a requirement, so it's quite easy to surmise that this has most likely only been tested with GZDoom. So, you should clarify that you need GZDoom (might also work on ZDoom) to run this.

 

Also, the wad file is very, very messy.

- The textures are a mixed set of Doom format and PNG images. It's sensible to choose one or the other.

- The maps are in a semi-random order,  and there's even some stray map data at the beginning of the file with no reference as to what map it might be.

- There are no texture credits, which should always be included in the file itself, or packaged alongside with it.

- If you're mapping with ZDoom and GZDoom in mind, you can have all the textures as PNGs, set them between TX_START and TX_END and you're all set. If you want compatibility with ports like PrBoom+, you need to convert all your textures into Doom format, make sure they are included in the TEXTURE and PNAMES lumps, then include a SWITCHES and ANIMATED lumps for switches and animated textures to work.

 

Check out megawads such as Valiant, Sunlust or Ancient Aliens for reference on how to organize your data. The maps themselves are looking nice.

[Walter confetti]

Looks really good, reminds me somehow of Darkening 2 with the texture s schemes... Dig it.

[Walkerrr]

*UPDATED*

 

POST: New screenshots and download link for updated version of the wad.

 

WAD:

- Now the wad is a little more organized and with credits for the textures.

- Fixed a small problem in MAP02

- 3 new maps with the theme of "hell" were added.

 

I invite you to leave a comment. Thank you

Edited July 28, 2020 by Walkerrr

[El Inferno]

I played maps 1 and 10 from this wad.

Map 1 is a pretty usual tech-base hit-scan hell but it was pretty enjoyable. I wish you put there a bit more health and rockets at various points. I completely run out of ammo by the end. Visuals in the map are pretty good.

I jumped straight to map 10 to see if the difficulty raises up and are there still tons of hitscan roaming around. And it indeed gets harder! And there are still tons of hitscanners... Sort of. Anyway, I liked the fights in this map. In the fight with one mastermind and 4 arachnotrons I haven't found any strategy better than just to press 4 switch and run away and then kill everything with bfg later. It seemes that the only spot to kill the mastermind is this rock here:

Spoiler

  

But it is a bit too low and MM keeps shooting you even if you stand behind it. It didn't hurt you but if you try to look out you get damaged instantly. Camping behind arahnotrons platforms is not an option either because they are a bit too far away from MM and you cannot shoot her. 

I see in the description that the freelook is required to play and so this latter issue is not intensional, I guess. But I prefer to play without freelook.

 

I recorded videos of my playthroughs:

Spoiler

 

 

 

 

 

[Walkerrr]

1 hour ago, el_inf said:

I played maps 1 and 10 from this wad.

Map 1 is a pretty usual tech-base hit-scan hell but it was pretty enjoyable. I wish you put there a bit more health and rockets at various points. I completely run out of ammo by the end. Visuals in the map are pretty good.

I jumped straight to map 10 to see if the difficulty raises up and are there still tons of hitscan roaming around. And it indeed gets harder! And there are still tons of hitscanners... Sort of. Anyway, I liked the fights in this map. In the fight with one mastermind and 4 arachnotrons I haven't found any strategy better than just to press 4 switch and run away and then kill everything with bfg later. It seemes that the only spot to kill the mastermind is this rock here:

  Hide contents

  

But it is a bit too low and MM keeps shooting you even if you stand behind it. It didn't hurt you but if you try to look out you get damaged instantly. Camping behind arahnotrons platforms is not an option either because they are a bit too far away from MM and you cannot shoot her. 

I see in the description that the freelook is required to play and so this latter issue is not intensional, I guess. But I prefer to play without freelook.

 

I recorded videos of my playthroughs:

  Hide contents

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks, I really enjoyed your gameplays.
And that is the purpose, to improve gameplay and balance in general.
You are the third person who gave me a review and I will have it in mind to correct the maps. :)

It is very true that to be the first level it is quite difficult!.

Maybe for now the maps are more enjoyable in "Hurt me plenty" skill in general

Thanks for playing and commenting!

[El Inferno]

I'd rather say it's a bit too long for a first level.  Also I forgot to mention that on the automap all your maps have name "Map 1: Entryway" for some reason. I even got confused first time and thought that the map order is messed up. 

 

[MattFright]

I'm currently playing through this and i'll leave my thoughts on it once i'm done, but for now, can you please consider doing something to this headache inducing riff? The riff is long enough and the song short enough that this repeats over and over and gets reaaaaaaally annoying really quickly, and i don't think in this case it's just a matter of taste since it just sounds like a intentionally loud phone clock alarm.

https://imgur.com/QcRhMCj

[El Inferno]

28 minutes ago, MattFright said:

I'm currently playing through this and i'll leave my thoughts on it once i'm done, but for now, can you please consider doing something to this headache inducing riff? The riff is long enough and the song short enough that this repeats over and over and gets reaaaaaaally annoying really quickly, and i don't think in this case it's just a matter of taste since it just sounds like a intentionally loud phone clock alarm.

https://imgur.com/QcRhMCj

 

Changing midi player may help perhaps

[MattFright]

8 minutes ago, el_inf said:

 

Changing midi player may help perhaps

 

Does seem to help a bit apparently, still annoying to have to change it just for one song though, which i bet other people would have to do as well since FluidSynth is the default player for GZDoom (and FluidSynth still sounds better for the whole song except for that earbleeding riff IMO).

[adamadam]

I've been enjoying playing through this wad, just finished the first 10 on ultra-violence.  I have not used freelook at all, maybe it's just a few secrets that require it?  I took a different approach to Map 10 staying around the outside edge killing the pinkies and arachnotrons first, worked out well.  I didn't find secrets in map 9, without them there is a serious lack of ammo.  I carried over a lot of ammo from map 8 but by the end of map 9 I was nearly fully depleted.  I only saw a few select opportunities for in-fighting.  Suppose if I use the chainsaw more, and find the secrets do they have ammo?  Otherwise map 9 was well laid out & fun to play through.

[nrofl]

How long have you been mapping? If this is a first effort this is very impressive and if its not its still looks very good. Vaguely reminded me of IC2005 which is good.

[Bryan T]

This is good! It has a BTSX vibe. Why did you remove the DL link?

[Walkerrr]

1 hour ago, Bryan T said:

This is good! It has a BTSX vibe. Why did you remove the DL link?

 

Thanks!

I removed DL Link cause I am modifying the levels in general.

 

Based on some comments I will decrease monster density, and add more ammo.

 

And I'm working also in making the maps more understandable in the aspect of "where to go next?"

 

Then I will add the Download link again :)

 

[Walkerrr]

21 hours ago, nue said:

How long have you been mapping? If this is a first effort this is very impressive and if its not its still looks very good. Vaguely reminded me of IC2005 which is good.

 

Thank you! 

 

I have some years with mapping, I used to make some maps for Zombie Horde mod.

 

This project started some years ago but I left due to studies and lack of time.

 

But lately I have had free time and decided to continue with my project.

 

I have been constantly improving the same maps, creating textures and modifying the designs.

 

I kept the original wad as backup. At first the maps used to look like this:

 

Spoiler

 

 

 

 

[Bryan T]

6 hours ago, Walkerrr said:

I will decrease monster density

Well I just played through the first 10 maps on UV and I thought the opposition was perfect, just as you'd expect this difficulty to be. In fact, I thought the ending of map10 could've used some more enemies.

[adamadam]

I finished through the 13 maps.  I like the looks to the maps, and felt the difficulty was about right on ultra-violence, well done so far!  Suggestion for future maps, often I'd reach a switch at the end of a path but not know what that switch activates, and had to go searching around.  If the main door or lift the switch activates isn't close enough to be seen or heard when pressing the switch, I've seen other map creators use a series of small rooms with a monster or two which simultaneously open up and form a path guiding the player to where they are supposed to go.  Like if I press a switch, maybe the main door it opens is very far away - if I see a new zombieman now roaming down a hallway that is in sight, this signifies to me this hallway is the correct direction to go in.  Teleporting monsters in to form a path would work too.

 

Overall, very impressive work!  I also really liked how the levels for the most part flowed one to the next - the exit of one is the start of the next.  Some of the tech base rooms are overly symmetrical (enter a room and have the exact same layout and enemy placements on the left & right, but certainly doesn't detract from the gameplay.  Comment on map 10, the ending of the tech base episode group was a bit lacking, I killed off all the other enemies then just stood still and watched as the last cyberdemon & spider mastermind in-fight each other to death.

Edited August 4, 2020 by adamadam

[Walkerrr]

Hi, thank you for you comments!

Also for your gameplays, I have been enjoying them a lot!

 

I'm still working on improving Tech-Base maps

 

For now the download link is available again

 

The updates in the new version are:

 

- Maps have names

- Few modifications with monsters in levels

- Added new textures to help with continuity of the maps (Switches and doors)

 

 

Regards.

[MattFright]

I haven't had enough time to play through what there was in the previously available version, but i do agree with Bryan, Ultra-Violence felt pretty balanced given it's the hardest difficulty available (that isn't a gimmick, looking at you NIGHTMARE), and monster density felt pretty challenging without being unfair. I'm unsure of how difficult it got past map 5 since i didn't get farther than that, but until that point it was quite fun

[Saducimus]

I played map 01 yesterday and liked it enough that I'm going to dig in later today. I played using Project Brutality and liked it quite a bit. I'll let you know what more I think once I have gone through more levels! So far so good, and I don't think the first map is too long, who says every intro map has to be short

[Pixel Fiend]

I'm sold on the screenshots. Will test it as soon as it's finished.

[Saducimus]

So I just got to the Barracks which is map 6 or 7. This is pretty damn sweet if ya ask me! I haven't used jump. I'm not a huge fan of Quake 2 textures but for this, they work quite nicely. I'm enjoying the hell out of this SOB! Thanks for putting your time and effort into it!

[MikeyScoots]

Okay this is sick. Im actually excited for this one. Keep it going man please!

[Saducimus]

[Walkerrr]

Updated:

- Modifications in MAP11 and MAP12
- Now available MAP14 and MAP15

 

New Download Link, enjoy it! :)

[MattFright]

Hey, i've played about the first half of the maps so far (both 14 and 13 test versions) and i feel like i've got some feedback to share so far so i don't overwhelm you with everything in one reply after playing through everything. Okay, to start with the good stuff:

This is one of the best wads i've played with no gameplay changes, very pretty and i find the levels quite memorable so far in layout and design, and part of what i love the most about it so far is that as easy as most encounters are to get through, not getting through them efficiently enough (IE playing badly or not paying proper attention) slowly depletes your limited resources of health and armor, resulting in every attempt feeling just as fun since you've always got new ideas to tackle every encounter.

 

Now on to the nitpicks, criticism and possible solutions:

Spoiler

These "background areas" look great and i especially love the ones with enemies in them far away, however, it's not always clear whether they're accessible or not, which proves to be a pain when you're looking for secrets at the end of the map, looking through your automap, which is when those cool decorative ambient areas become clutter (Also kind of ugly when you pick up a computer area map, since all behind-the-scenes stuff such as monster closets show up on it). BTSX solves this issue by hiding any non-accessible decorative sectors like those, which i feel like is something your wad would GREATLY benefit from.

 

Now about numbered doors/switches:

Spoiler

I absolutely love how these make switch hunting actually fun and very intuitive (how is this even the first map i see using numbered switches/doors???), but i feel like the ones on the doors are wayyy too small, and i found myself missing them way too often despite them flashing, since they're so hard to notice from a distance or in the flow of combat, but it's up to you.

 

Funny bugs:

Spoiler

These are pretty minor i guess but still worth noting: MAP05 spits out the errors shown above when opening it up, and that railing on MAP06 isn't impassable.

 

Consistency stuff:

Spoiler

First screenshot: Those telepads are really inconsistent for some reason, and i found it pretty disorienting first time playing through the first few levels, because at first it was sort of established that blue ones teleport enemies in, but don't teleport the player, while the red ones teleport the player around but not the players, but MAP06 (and probably others i haven't played or a single one i might be forgetting) use the blue telepad to teleport the player, but not the monsters.

Second: This one might be a bit opinionated and pretty minor, but after two maps of seeing that texture used for secrets, i got paranoid trying to get to that (inaccessible) one expecting it to be a secret, which only made more sense since it's so hard to get to, being in such a tricky spot. Maybe replace that one in MAP04 with one of the green ones?

Third: I luckily didn't experience this myself, but i can definitely see people trying to UV max MAP07, jumping into the pit recklessly and just getting through the map, only to then look for secrets, but having to do the level all over again because this is the first map in the wad with a secret you can't come back to at any moment after you've missed it. Small, but it may save a few people from a lot of frustration.

 

 

Those are my small criticisms and nitpicks so far, i'm going to make a separate reply for my thoughts on individual maps and changes between version 13 and 14 later, since i really don't want to make you sit through a massive wall of text :P

[Korozive]

Back To Saturn X Reloaded. It is that good.

[MattFright]

Sorry this took so long (though it helped me think of what criticism to give tenfold over if i had just given my thoughts immediately after playing each map), but i've now finished the first episode (about 3 times, in ultra-violence) and here's all of the feedback i can give on it, hopefully it helps with further polishing things out:

 

MAP01:

Spoiler

Not much to say, except that it's INCREDIBLY FUN. I'll keep this brief, because the map is already incredible, but while i liked the changes from version 13 to 15, the shotgunner replacing the chaingunner at the outdoors area was quite redundant and if anything it was so harmless that i didn't notice it a few times, and i also miss the harder final part of the level behind the red key door.

 

MAP02: 

Spoiler

Another highlight of the first episode, both in gameplay and looks, my favorite thing about it being just how subtly it allows you to approach it in several different ways without getting lost or losing out on kills/items. However, there is one big piece of criticism i have to give about this map, and it's this arena:

 

It terrified me at first, but i haven't died a single time in it, even after you spiced it up in version 15. It's just too easy to dodge everything, and make everything infight. One suggestion would be to make only demons of the same type spawn in the same waves, and narrow down the amount of different demons that spawn, since that'd greatly decrease the reliance on infighting. Making it a bit smaller would help a lot too, since either way there's enough space for you to circle everything while they're all grouped up at the middle. Maybe also add one more archvile, and make it spawn halfway through? Oh and also, the revenants outside of the arena are incredibly annoying to kill, even with all other monsters dead.

 

 

After finishing the map, i noticed 5 enemies still left alive all the times i finished this map, so i went looking for them out of bounds and found these guys. The imp was awake but stuck, while the cacodemons weren't even awaken.

 

MAP03:

Spoiler

This one is huge, tough and experimental, and i love it. That maze-y room is quite unique and fun despite being gimmicky, though, i really dislike the inclusion of pinkies and spectres, because the fact that they don't shoot anything at you makes it near impossible to track them down for 100% kills without spending several minutes, even worse that their pathfinding acts weird in comparison to the other demons, so they just run away from you most of the time. I don't think that replacing them with imps or zombiemen would hurt. Also, killing the mastermind after you're done with the level is also a pain, both due to lack of ammo and her weird positioning. I feel like the best alternative could be to maybe lure her to the chaingun platform, and turn the ceiling of that into a crusher, activated from the red teleporter room, then just forget her to die since you don't get to see her again.

 

MAP04:

Spoiler

Well, to start off with, there's an arachnatron stuck here:

 

Might be because i've set my compatibility settings to Boom(strict), but that only makes sense since the wad is made on boom format. Aside from that however, this is a level taht i feel GREATLY suffered after being updated (v13 to v15), as now there is wayyyy too much ammo (was completely stacked out on shells, had 60/100 rockets and 200/600 cells for the final fight), and the encounter for the red key became a joke when previously it was EXTREMELY fun. I don't remember whether the demons guarding the key were set to ambush on version 13, but they are in version 15, and that just allows you to pick them off when you have plenty of room to dodge, back up to, and it overall makes that fight a joke. I also miss the chaingunners over the other side of the barrels hall, that got replaced with (harmless) imps. This is by far my biggest request to revert something back, since on version 13, this was one of my favorite encounters in the wad, and i don't remember anything else wrong with it in version 13 either so i see no reason why it got updated.

 

MAP05:

Spoiler

I keep getting surprised with how much these maps just keep getting more fun, and this one is by far the best example of your non-linear design and the variety in all of your monster placements, and i also feel like the song you chose for this compliments it VERY well. There is a change from v13 that i didn't like, however: 

 

The placement of that crate makes this encounter a bit of a joke. In v13, you noticed that there were two mancubi closing in on you in such a small, cramped space, so you had to quickly kill the closest one, so that they wouldn't both corner you behind the crate to the right of the switch that activated the trap, but with that new crate there, it makes it so you can quickly and easily get rid of one mancubus at a time, making this trap now harmless to anyone who can reliably dodge a mancubus on their own.

 

 

There's also this teleporter, which teleports in a small horde of revenants after you go through the red teleporter behind the spider mastermind, but since that little area is pretty much the map's hub, you can run away to any corner and avoid any challenge. I feel like it'd be much more challenging if some gates closed (leaving you only with that hub circular corridor and the mastermind's arena to run to), or make revenants spawn from the other paths, too. I feel like this tweak could make that ambush much more enjoyable and challenging, since as of now you can easily avoid taking any damage. Now, this level has way too much shells i noticed (i was always full on shells and passing by the 20 shells pickup everywhere), and i feel like the map could do with about half as many as they are currently given. As the last piece of criticism i have for this map (absurdly fun map, by the way) is, when you come back from picking up the yellow key and get back to the storage area, it's clear to tell that you wanted to repopulate the area, but there are way too little of them to serve any challenge, and that also results in the player exiting with a whole heap of health and armor most of the time (or at least that was the case for me in my playthroughs), and the same goes for the enemies behind the yellow door: they don't pose much of a theat (maybe add a baron or two? archviles maybe?). Either way this map was a WHOLE lot of fun, and i love the sheer scale of the whole thing, especially with how unique the landmarks are, making it very easy to navigate and almost impossible to get lost in.

 

MAP06:

Spoiler

While i don't love this much as i love the others, it's still a pretty good deal of fun. It's just somewhat annoying to spend 5 minutes hunting down the zombiemen, chaingunners and shotgunners at the storage hangar, and when you open the gates at the hangar, this trap opens up at the middle of the hallway:

 

It's waaaaay too reliant on the player not having a good sense of awareness for their surroundings, since the 3 are set to ambush, resulting in it being easy to pick them off one by one to preserve health if you happen to be low on it at this point, as well as not being as challenging if they weren't set to ambush and could all come towards you at once once you shot just one of them. Oh, there's a huge positive about this level, though! It's by far the best one in terms of ammo balancing, i always noticed myself changing weapons (even using the fist and regular shotgun sometimes), and this was probably what made the otherwise somewhat uninteresting encounters much more enjoyable. You could use this one as a baseline for balancing pickups on other maps (especially later ones on this episode, since they're not quite so balanced in this regard, but more on that later). Also, some repopulation near the end before the exit would've been nice, both to lead the player towards the exit better (since enemies were my biggest sense of direction this map, i got kind of lost at the end), and to give the player something to do while moving to the opposite side of the map rather than just running around now-empty halls and corridors. Also you may not agree with this so i completely understand if it doesn't change, but i'm not quite fond of the theme for this level, mostly because it's so repetitive for something that plays for such a long map, not because it sounds bad (i liked it at first anyways, until i got further into the map).

 

MAP07:

Spoiler

Probably my second or third favorite map of this episode, which is a huge accomplishment for a sewer level (in fact, this might be the best, most fun and creative sewer level i've played), and i LOVE your song choice for this, too! I watched someone playing this a while back complaining that it's too predictable but i feel like they were trying too hard to overcriticize and overanalyze things, a lot of what's in display here surprised me first time around. Keep in mind though, it's still got lots of gameplay oddities, such as this:

 

When you get to this part, you're usually only chased down by two revenants and a mancubus, while two chaingunners and arachnatrons stand at the back doing nothing. Maybe it'd be a good idea to teleport them in at the spot that they're currently standing in, but awaken, whenever you open those doors at this central corridors with the shotgunners and hellknights? That'd make this fight much more challenging and fun, because as of now, you can just pick off all of the enemies in this large room with only ever taking little to no damage. Oh and i'm curious to know what sector light mode you use to playtest/design these maps, because with all lighting settings looking vanilla-ish, the darkness only adds to the difficulty

 

And i feel like that's a great thing because if it was too easy to see in these environments the map might've been much easier. Also...

 

 

Did you accidentally place down a single hellknight in this room? It's nice to make it infight every time i open that room but it feels super out of place with the 4 mancubi?? I feel like maybe set two of them as ambush in corners along with a baron, so they ambush you when you go in after killing the mancubi? Just a suggestion, that room could be a bit more interesting is all. Also, at this point in the level is where a trend starts with this episode, which i really don't like: far too many rockets. There's a lot of all ammo except for cells, so you can just spam the rocket launcher at everything with no penalty, making a lot of the level far too easy, as well as boring at times (plus, removing a lot of these rockets would also solve the problem of too many shells, since you'd be using those more, too). There are fun ways to make rocket launcher-focused levels, but in this, it just feels like you're steamrolling any challenge for 2/3 of the map. Biggest example of that is probably the number one switch behind the blue key arena, which after being pressed, spawns an archvile which i'm assuming you're supposed to fight down there due to the awkward positioning, but since you have so many rockets, you can just fire 4 at the archie and that's that entire ambush done with in 3 seconds. The staircases that open up from the locked number 1 doors are also a bit too easy. I'm pretty sure that making the hellknights and shotgunners set to ambush was the sole cause of this, since the chaingunner traps are nasty, it's just those others that are dealt with too easily. Some asymmetry would be nice, too, so that you don't know exactly what to expect when clearing up the other side. The key arena is fine, but it has a problem: the arachnatrons serving as a barrier doesn't really work since you've got so much firepower. In all of my runs i found myself blasting through them and seeking better cover against all of the revenants and mancubi, even though it'd be more fun to make do with the space restriction and fight them in that tiny area. My suggestion would be to raise bars in front of the arachnatrons, that can only be lowered by the other side. This would serve two purposes: locking the player in that small area so that they can't just avoid all enemy fire, AND giving the player a hint that the way out is in that room, not in the previous room with the arachnatrons, since that's something i got stuck on a few times despite having playing the map before. Lastly though i'll just clarify that i LOVE this level, just not it's execution (aside from the BFG secret, that one is so clever and well made that it's one of the highlights of the whole wad for me).

 

MAP08:

Spoiler

Man... another case of me really liking a concept, but it not being delivered correctly.

 

While i LOVE the setup you've got here, a cyberdemon at the end of a huge cylindrical hall huge of short, quick encounters, sounds super fun!! But... because of some parts, it just became a RNGfest, probably my only frustration with the wad, and a big one at that. For one, you start off having to deal with the RNG of pistol damage and pistol accuracy against these shotgunners, the RNG of whether the cyberdemon shoots or not, and the RNG of how often the shotgunners will shoot at you, as well as their accuracy. If you're lucky to survive that, you drop down into the pit with the mancubus, where you have to drop to the left, where you have to either rely on the mancubus' RNG of whether he shoots or not if you drop to the left, you have to rely on the RNG for the same thing but for the chaingunner if you drop to the right. The arachnatron is easy to deal with, so is the next few encounters. But when you have to cross the bridge for the door that the hellknight comes out of, that's when this becomes outright unfun, because there's the RNG of being zapped by the archvile, or shot by the cyberdemon, and in either case it's a complete gamble of life and death, since you have to go full speed to get through and live, but in the time that the door is opening, it is likely that the archvile will zap you, or that the cyberdemon will shoot the door. Just... spawning the SSG on top of your hitbox (as opposed to between enemies), and maybe replace the first two shotgunners with zombiemen, replace the mancubus at the start with a revenant, and maybe a way to block the archvile's line of sight to you after you reach the final part (but either way remove the hitscanners sitting on the same platform as him, those are just more RNG of whether you'll have enough health to survive the rest or not), and tweaking the cyberdemon arena so that there is slightly more space to dodge without having to either hug the cyber or take splash damage (though i'm not sure if even that would solve the issue), would all be enough to make this more tolerable. With how this stands right now, it's hard to have fun with this map given how much of a sour taste this start leaves in my mouth. Moving on to the outdoors areas (because the small indoors areas between the start and the outdoors are quite neatly put together):

 

I'm not sure whether this was intended or an accident, but having cacodemons stuck up there by monster blocking linedefs makes them absurdly annoying to kill. If you want something up there to harass the player without coming down, i suggest arachnatrons, former humans or even hell knights/revenants. Or, well, these outdoors areas (of this specific map) are something you should look into better and refine on your own, because all of the enemy placements feel random, it doesn't feel like you're adding variety in types of enemies to make for unique and fun gameplay scenarios, but rather only doing it for the sake of it. It'd also be REALLY nice to see barons finally make a return before the final level of this episode, since i absolutely loved all of your uses of them in the previous maps! From this point forward however it gets much more fun, though still a bit easy in comparison to the earlier maps, and while the blue key arena and ambush are quite challenging, some asymmetry would go a long way to make clearing out the other side not feel predictable and a chore. Also, once again, way too many shells and rockets way too early on, which makes every fight the same: "shoot rockets until there's nothing left alive", the only fun fight with lots of rockets in this map was the red key ambush, thanks to the archvile. Oh, and you should check the ambush tag on the cacos at the nukagefalls area with the revenants on pillars, since for some reason one of the cacos is set to ambush and very hard to trigger, and i see no reason why there should be set to ambush since they're meant to all come for you at once. OKAY, now after the culmination of unfun that the first two thirds of that level were, here's some compliments about the rest, which, is some of my favorite fights in the whole episode: The yellow key fight killed me SO MANY TIMES, and i loved it because it gave me this sense of ever growing pressure to kill the cacos as soon as possible but not waste too many rockets on them, since when the archvile spawns, not killing it quickly enough can spell guaranteed death. Now onto probably the hardest fight i've ever got through in doom, but also one of the most fun i've experienced. The difficulty mostly coming from being such a difficult fight at the end of such a huge map, though even if it was on its own i'd still say this is one of the hardest i've had, and i feel like it's safe to say that this is the recommended point for anyone to turn down the difficulty to hurt me plenty if it's too difficult for them. Oh, and i love that you've put a teleporter to go back this time, greatly appreciated :)

MAP09:

Spoiler

YES!! This is the end of the flawed episode 1 levels, playing this now immediately replenished all of the fun i was beginning to lose after the last two maps. Here's one thing i ran into right away, though:

 

Yup, you can get stuck behind this elevator. Also, another thing that i'm not sure whether you'll care much about or not, but:

 

 

In non-default/zdoom compatibility settings, this stalagmite makes it really annoying to pass through due to infinite height. Now, i am aware that you made this for GZDoom, however, it's not only a boom format map (IE compatible with other sourceports), but after trying to run it on the Eternity Engine, i noticed that most of this works perfectly fine there except for some stuff that could easily be tweaked. Either way, it shouldn't take much effort to aim for further compatibility, no? More on that after the last map.

 

 

Now, as fun as this map is, this choke point is awful. Due to the monsters positioning, this is a VERY fun fight from the other entrance, but not this one, so i suggest perhaps blocking this area off, so that the player doesn't waste their patience trying to approach the area from this angle thinking it's the right/only way to do it, but is still able to see the area. Now, onto the area where you lift the pillars bridge to get to: it's far too symmetrical when it comes to monster placement, like many rooms in previous maps (again, removes the element of surprise and any variation, and makes clearing the other side only a repetitive task), and since you get SO MANY ROCKETS before getting to that area (roughly 15 from the path to the more obscure lift switch alone), the archvile encounter (which i could see being a lot of fun with the other weapons, including the previously acquired plasma rifle) becomes a joke, and shells also become a problem for being everywhere at this point in the map (it's almost becoming a pattern in the wad now, though in this map it's due to them being spread all throughout nearby routes rather than evenly distributed throughout the map, which makes the last parts very frustrating for running out of shells and rockets), while throughout the first 15 or so minutes of the map it was so well balanced that i was switching through all of my weapons, and even using berserk and chainsaw to kill off lonely fodder, but with the abundance of ammo it just became about using the rocket launcher and super shotgun (respectively) nonstop. The same issue goes for the next archvile encounter, which also ends in just 3 seconds with the abundance of rockets. The encounter below that (with the mancubi, imps, revenants and the zombies) could REALLY use of removing their ambush flag (easy-to-pick-off ambush enemies are also becoming painfully repetitive and boring in the wad by now). As you can probably guess, the archvile that spawns next also dies in under 3 seconds, and then the one when you teleport back up with two archviles is just a matter of holding down the left mouse button with the rocket launcher and waiting for the archviles to die. Not fun. Oh and the teleporter that goes back to the chokepoint-y area is very interesting, but it's very weirdly executed: for one, the red key is very very very hard to spot, since that whole area is red, it just blends in on your peripheral vision while you're first exploring that area (maybe make it blue instead??), so when you teleport to that platform, you easily miss it, and don't try to pick it up, which causes the cacos and a few pinkies to not spawn in. Though, i'd argue that that teleport itself is quite problematic, and instead should be triggered in a linedef you can't not trigger when jumping down the platform, that way you can't just completely avoid the challenge of that area (and also, please consider spawning in an archvile with the pinkies, since while challenging, this is still easier than the previous maps as it currently is). The last few encounters are fun and well balanced so i have no complaint about those, though by the end of the level i found enemies stuck out of bounds once more:

 

 

MAP10:

Spoiler

This map is ALMOST perfect. The only complaint i have is the first encounter with the mastermind and two revenants: i do get that you're supposed to make them infight, to quickly rush the switch and move forward, but not only does that require a lot of RNG to get right without taking deadly damage, but it's also painful to get rid of that mastermind afterwards (i had to "grab" a cyberdemon from the final showdown to kill it for me). Otherwise though this was the best possible way you could've ended this episode! I love how much use you get out of masterminds despite it barely being used in other wads (or outright always replaced in dehacked ones), and i love how short yet challenging this map is. I also love the music, it fits the map perfectly!

 

Now, sorry for the overwhelming amount of text! I can't record playthroughs with commentary since OBS ruins my framerate in any game i play, so this was the closest i could get to conveying all of the criticism i had over a large period of examining this wad. If you didn't hate this amount of text, i'll do the same once the hell chapter is full (and for now i'll just say that the first map of that is perfect and probably my favorite map of the whole wad, one of my favorite depictions of hell and an incredible introduction with the song you chose for it). As for the compatibility thing i mentioned earlier, couldn't you consider working on compatibility for other sourceports for the final release? Wads like Lunatic or Valiant don't even sacrifice anything (such as taller skies) to make themselves more compatible, and from what i've seen (and tested in the Eternity engine), it'd only take minimal effort. I could try to help too if you think you don't have the time to do it, since the main reason i'd want this is so more people can enjoy this amazing wad! Even people who want to stick to prboom+, with demos, no freelook and such. Oh yeah, you should also remove the requirement of freelook from the topic, i did all of my playthroughs without freelook and it was 100% playable, even if MAP09 made it a bit difficult (mind you, with enemies that didn't serve much purpose being so high up anyways). Either way, i've really enjoyed all of this so far! Good luck with the rest of the development, this is by far my most anticipated doom project now :)

Edited October 4, 2020 by MattFright

[00_Zombie_00]

I only played 2 maps, and I loved it. how is this project going?