[Now on IdGames] Hellevator - 32 maps Community Project Boom Megawad

[DoubleCakes]

In Level 10, The Splatter Floor, there's that door at the end you open with the blue keycard that divides the collumns and opens your way to the red key. However, the door may close behind me and trap me in there. Is this intentional? Also the imps sometimes opened that door despite me not opening it with a key.

[ViolentBeetle]

1 minute ago, DoubleCakes said:

In Level 10, The Splatter Floor, there's that door at the end you open with the blue keycard that divides the collumns and opens your way to the red key. However, the door may close behind me and trap me in there. Is this intentional? Also the imps sometimes opened that door despite me not opening it with a key.

You are supposed to get trapped and re-open it with a shootable switch. Not quite sure what imps could have done.

[Captain Toenail]

3 hours ago, DoubleCakes said:

Also the imps sometimes opened that door despite me not opening it with a key.

 

Does this happen after you are locked in the red key area? Is it possible you (or the imps) are shooting the eyeball switch?

 

You can also jam this pillar door open if you stand in the way (I consider this a feature, not a bug ;-)

Edited December 8, 2020 by Captain Toenail

[DoubleCakes]

You guys are right. I must have hit the eye switch without realizing it.

[Biodegradable]

 

Here's my go at the first three maps. Gonna play more over the month.

[akolai]

MAP21: The Custodian Floor
This map's secrets, in total, contain:
 - 20 cells
 - 50 bullets
 - ONE rocket
Each in a separate secret. Particularly with the rocket, I felt as if I'd been robbed when I found it.
The map uses its archviles well - they are all avoidable, but never trivial.
The cyberdemon completely ruins the experience once the rest of the level is clear. He's a bullet sponge behind wierdly shaped cover, who can kill you in one hit it you're not using an extremely lame peeking playstyle. He is actively unfun to deal with. The visuals and general combat aren't interesting enough to save this map. Certain imps and arachnotrons will also not spawn in if their locations are blocked, and have no repeatable teleports (iirc most if not all teleporter boxes have no secondaries). 3/10

MAP22: The Marbelous Floor
A great idea, matched with good execution.
Six different weapon orders and six secondary enemy orders makes 36 potential levels... well, 37, if you count running around in circles without firing a shot until every enemy is released, which may have be the most fun I've had breaking a level in doom. The problem is the imps in Sectors #862 and #873 were blocked from teleporting in, and did not have a repeatable setup due to the secondary teleports being erroneously tagged with Action #128 (Floor Raise) as opposed to #126 (Repeatable Monster Teleport) on all of the top 12 rightmost imp boxes.
Additionally, the blue revenant rooms, and temporary storage rooms of Sectors #562 and #566 have no repeatable teleport, the latter of which did not, and is unlikely to cause any issues in testing due to the destinations, but has potential to become an issue, and the former of which can be trivially achieved by following my headless chicken method but releasing the revenants last.
The power of the weapons you grab scales (roughly) to the danger of the enemy type guarding it, which makes for a good dilemma.
If I take rockets first, I do the barons second, since mancubi are wide meatshields and pain elementals shoot rocket catchers.
If I take plasma, pain elementals are the best choice, since the others soak up too many cells.
With SSG, it's mancubi, since pain elementals don't infight well and we're not playing Hell Revealed.
These complementary pairs are most likely unintended, which goes to show how even a complete clusterfuck like this can have players believing they're making good decisions. Speaking of intent, it is not a coincidence that the red pillars rise with the viles, giving you cover.
The core arena is simplistic out of necessity. The secret backpack is kind of redundant, since there are two others in the level. The layout of the side-routes is simplistic and the visuals are lacking relative to the better parts of the wad, but it's better to be simple but effective than try and fail to be unique. 8/10

MAP23: The Hickory Spire Floor
First off, the first arena can be skipped while grabbing all weapons. Demo included, recorded in prboom+ 2.5.1.5:
skips.rar (this may desync, I forgot to tag it with a complevel before recording)
It is also possible to jump off this ledge into the pit, thus softlocking yourself. Spoiler tag to save on screen space.

Spoiler

I don't know how to feel about this one.
It's cruel, mean, dickish, and a straight up cunt. It doesn't give a shit about what you think is fair, it's going in raw either way.
It puts all its chips down on being hard. Springing undodgeable traps on the player. Giving them no room to maneuvre. It's cathartic to beat, but not fun to play.

The double cyberdemon death battle would be very dramatic, were it not annoying on account of the pain elementals. It is impossible to backtrack (as far as I could tell). The rev-guarded rocket launcher is also redundant as the player should have one by that point.
The only way to reconcile my feelings about this map is to give it two separate scores. The fights are geniusly evil. If you're looking for a challenge to beat, it's an 7/10 - an 8 if instead the ammo is greatly reduced, and the cyberdemons killed by telefrag, and a 9 if general traversal is made less precarious. If you're looking for a good, fun game of doom, look elsewhere. 3/10.

MAP24: The Cracked Floor
If you didn't like map 23, leave now. It reminds me of Saturnine Chapel - namely, in how unfathomably mean it can be using simple combinations of small numbers of enemies and tight spaces. Infighting is a requirement - not because ammo is tight - but because any demons killing each other instead of you greatly increases your chances of survival. In as many ways as possible, the map is actively hostile to the player (going as far as to ominously close the elevator door behind them), giving them no safe place that they don't carve out themselves. Every setpiece bleeds creativity and fiendishness. Even saving before each major fight (five in total), this felt incredible to beat. A combination of highly competent mapping and an excellent song choice give the map an incredibly oppressive atmosphere.
My issues are as follows: The teleporter pad leaving the elevator is 20% damaging floor - disencourages blocking spawns, so it should be kept, but it should be communicated better. I saw out of bounds to the right of the yellow door and found slime trails aplenty on the stairs in the initial shotgunner room. Most of all, ammo was not constrained by the end. Both rockets and cells were in excess by a large amount (I never used the plasma (380 cells) and still exited with 15 rockets.)
Yet, this is a similar situation to the previous map - anyone heading in for a relaxing time will not find it here. My praise of this level over the previous, in addition to the points mentioned, is in the relative fairness of the fights. Once you've hammered out a working strategy, they become more consistent, but never easy, and failures felt as though they were my fault, whereas in the last map, failure felt as if it were the fault of the close-quarters hell kinghts, for immediately swarming me.
Giving it the same treatment: it's easily 9/10. By ironing out bugs, and drastically tightening the ammo economy, it's deserving of the coveted 10/10. In terms of the standard, relaxing doom experience, it's the same 3/10 as the last, not from a lack of talent, but because it's actively trying to alienate and destroy you.

MAP25: The Gore Floor
Anything was going to be a disappointment after map 24, but... come on. This is full of baffling design choices. Starting the player out with only a shotgun makes the following combat feel lethargic and combat is consistently slow. You'll have no time to take cover from the archviles if you don't hear their fleshy doors open (which you won't because the viles are already awake, meaning both that their grumbles cut over the deafeningly quiet door opening, and that you won't have any other audio indication that they are now active. The wading in blood part is novel given the slowdown mechanic, but becomes the worst part of the level by far with the addition of 2 revenants. I'm fairly sure their missiles are literally undodgeable without taking cover while you're in the blood pit. Creating a convincing gore pit with Doom 2's stock textures is challenging at the best of times, and this map does a better job than most, but... the icon of sin music... why???
Slow combat, enemy placement ranging from average to uninspired to abhorrent, and with a killer soundtrack to boot. This map is actively unfun to play. 2/10


That was a sad note to end on. I will be back once I'm done here to do a proper completion of map 24. The average review is getting progressively longer, and the map 30 review is set to be a 3000 word essay.
Excited for the final stretch, though. I recognise a few names in the credits from some earlier memorable maps.

Edited December 9, 2020 by akolai

[Shawny]

5 hours ago, akolai said:

the imps in Sectors #862 and #873 were blocked from teleporting in, and did not have a repeatable setup due to the secondary teleports being erroneously tagged with Action #128 (Floor Raise) as opposed to #126 (Repeatable Monster Teleport) on all of the top 12 rightmost imp boxes.
Additionally, the blue revenant rooms, and temporary storage rooms of Sectors #562 and #566 have no repeatable teleport, the latter of which did not, and is unlikely to cause any issues in testing due to the destinations, but has potential to become an issue, and the former of which can be trivially achieved by following my headless chicken method but releasing the revenants last.

 

I will check those, also I would make a small layout change to make choosing RL more viable.

Right now only the blue path gives you access to the side room with the extra supplies from choosing SSG. If I am permitted I would change the position of the blue barrier so that choosing RL would gain you access to the side room by jumping the pillars (which are right now blocked by the blue wall).

It would still prevent player from gaining the backpack and megahealth (you would still need both RL and Plasma gun), don´t really change the middle part dynamic.

 

EDIT not to double post from future me:
Thanks again for pointing these thing out.
- Fixed the monster closet loop where last one has proper action (126 WR monster teleport) and other 11 closets had action 128.

- Added loops for revenants closets as was pointed above, depending on player actions and choices there is a chance that

   revenants would not teleport and get stuck forever.

- Moved blue barriers in a way that choosing RL route alone will also gain player access to the top side room.

  Makes combination RL - SSG for extra supplies viable.

  (Until now the blue barrier would prevent that. Backpack and megahealth is still gated by RL - Plasma gun combination)

 

Will test these changes and send the new version to ViolentBeetle tomorrow.

Edited December 9, 2020 by Shawny
Updated progress / avoiding double post

[Biodegradable]

 

[akolai]

MAP26: The Unforgotten Floor
Good, simple fun, but not terribly interesting or memorable. Nothing about any fight felt particularly out of the ordinary - apart from the cyberdemon at the end, which makes any fight interesting, but having to ssg him down at the end was tedious. The nazis have a colour palette too garish for normal levels, and I'd have replaced them with a mix of shotgunners and chaingunners.
The BFG can be obtained early by shooting the ssg from the spot in the image. (I'm assuming it's early since there's a much more intuitive spot to shoot from later)

Spoiler

It's a good BFG placement, mind you. Just what a secret should be: it helps, but isn't pivotal to your loadout, as there are only enough cells for one shot.
An imp became stuck in a teleport room, Sector #846, stuck between the last 2 teleport linedefs. The issue appears to be that the floor scrolling in the opposite direction is too powerful, and keeps him from ever crossing the teleporter.
It's a good bit of fun, but won't stick in your head. 6/10

MAP27: The Slaughter Floor
Pretty much everything in this map comes down to one room - so let's talk about that room.
It's the quintessential slaughter experience - dying because the spider mastermind wouldn't shoot, because you sure as shit don't have enough ammo or room for all those revs. You also can't stay in the main area unless you like dodging 2 archviles and said spider mastermind with only a few pillars while focusing on a horde of enemies, so you're forced back into a small cubby hole, which increases you odds of the spider cucking you and not shooting. The hell kinght and caco ambush is interesting, since the knights have to filter in the left side of your hole while the cacos take up the rest of the space. Pressing the archvile-guarded switches in the wrong order adds some more viles to the knight horde, which just punishes players who aren't familiar with the level.
Maybe slaughters just aren't my style... but it feels like the idea of one is completely antithetical to most of this wad. Most maps have you shooting through obstacles, constantly moving forward. Here, you're locked in a corner until the ambush is over, and the fights aren't special enough to justify the discontinuity. 6/10 as an individual map, but 3/10 as a part of the set.

MAP28: The Womb Floor
"The Womb is a map from Sunlust, and the music is from map 24 of the same set" I thought, going in. I then instinctively checked the tab menu.
SIX HUNDRED AND TEN MONSTERS
So. A mini Sunlust? Let's get to it.
It's less of an original creation, and more a remix of (primarily) Dying on Cue ('episodic' format, midi, rev + barrel opener, aesthetics), with the blue key fight being a rehash of a fight from Maelstrom. It plays well, because of course it does, it's based on Sunlust, but the arenas are still creative and original enough to be considered unique creations, and I particularly liked the way the yellow and red key arenas were spliced together for the finale, which, true to its source, contained about 60% of the map's total enemies.
I would still make a few changes: first, remove the cyber from the starting area - he makes it a grind to actually get a run going. The pillars that protect you from the viles in the blue key fight should be taller to give players a chance to time their shots without straight up counting to 10 or reacting obscenely fast, and there should be less of them positioned right in front of the player to reduce the risk of being zapped several times before you can even reach the invuln. The teleporter in the red key fight makes it really random and unpredictable - if you insist on having enemies come from that direction, add a consistent spawn.
Either way, it's a Sunlust redux, which is always a win when done this well. 9/10
(Sunlust happens to be my favourite wad, so I may be biased, but I think this brings enough to the table to be good on its own.)

MAP29: The Penthouse
For an end to the reprise of "The Floor", I expected something a little more dramatic. The fights are relatively simplistic leading to the archvile pillars (also borrowed from Sunlust, map 19?), and the visuals are especially lacking in the two rooms leading up to it (chaingun in the first, mancubi in the second) - the rest is either visually passable, interesting or (in the case of the lobby) pretty amazing. The lobby sequence at the end is really cool.
It's a good map, but can't hold up with the wad's best. 7/10

MAP30: The Roof
I don't know how you've done it, but you've made the icon of sin into a good level.
I had to play this twice - for max and for speed - it was great both runs. Most enemies can see you from most places, and cells are tight, which makes it impossible to keep a handle on everything like you would a normal icon level. The teleporting cyber is annoying but isn't much of an issue if you keep moving.
The imp platforms aren't surrounded with monster blocking linedefs, so they can be blasted off and made inaccessible without some rocket splash shenanigans.
Way better than expected for an icon map. 8/10

[Shawny]

1 hour ago, akolai said:

An imp became stuck in a teleport room, Sector #846, stuck between the last 2 teleport linedefs. The issue appears to be that the floor scrolling in the opposite direction is too powerful, and keeps him from ever crossing the teleporter.

 

That one is already fixed as this was already pointed out earlier by somebody else.

(Thank you for pointing that nonetheless.)

 

The SSG shot to uncover the secret was kept as it is during the mapping process. The map is too small and there are not many places for great BFG shots, as you mentioned one shot is all you have (if played pistol start) so there is not much difference when you actually get it.

Edited December 10, 2020 by Shawny

[ViolentBeetle]

1 hour ago, akolai said:

The imp platforms aren't surrounded with monster blocking linedefs, so they can be blasted off and made inaccessible without some rocket splash shenanigans.

I don't believe it ever happen to me (That is, for imp to fall of the ledge while alive), but I guess I should be more considerate of 100% players. Even if dead imps would stop falling off the platform.

[DoubleCakes]

Not much to add but I'm still playing this and it's still lots of fun and snappy. The Tech Testing Floor was a standout.

[ViolentBeetle]

On 12/6/2020 at 11:11 PM, Caleb13 said:

MAP28: there is a game-breaking bug concerning the central elevator bars (sector 626). When I finished the last fight, I didn't immediately exit the level and the bars closed again, with no way to reopen them. Probably the easiest fix would be to make the doll 422 move in a loop.

I can see now how that could have happened, either me or the mapper should be able to fix it for the next beta.

[HAK3180]

I've now played all the maps in some stage of development or another. Nice work, people. I was probably most impressed by Juka and Captain Toenail, simply because I had never seen either of their work* and both submitted more than one that I enjoyed. 

 

I think the quality is fairly consistent for the most part, while offering surprising variety for the concept. For me, two or three maps stood out as inferior, while Map 10 is my personal favorite.

 

*EDIT: I lied. I played Juka's Drainhole four months ago. I knew the name sounded familiar.

Edited December 11, 2020 by HAK3180

[Captain Toenail]

@akolai, @Caleb13, @HAK3180

 

Thank you for taking the time to playtest this wad, much appreciated. I have made a number of improvements to map10, map20 & map25 based on your feedback.

[ViolentBeetle]

Version 0.3 is now live, with multiple fixes and improvements based on feedback. With luck, it will be the final beta.

 

Changelog:

Spoiler

MAP04:

• Added some blocking lines to prevent player from getting stuck after an arch-vile jump

 

MAP10:

• Decreased density of crusher sectors for optimization

 

MAP20:

• Added some small walls to increase player cover at start area, notably at the corners
• Changed the cage bars midtexture to railings to improve visibility
• First Cacodemon now teleports in when approaching the barrel conveyor instead of being active at map start
• The piston platforming section was causing players to instantly quickload when falling into the lava. Now, upon stepping on the first piston platform, the rim will lower torwards the lava. This allows players to step back onto it from the lava floor.

 

MAP22:

• Fixed issue with some monster closets having wrong sector action
• Added loop for revenants monster closets (there was a slight chance that they could get stuck at specific occasion)
• Blue barrier was moved slightly to make some combinations more viable (or viable at all)

MAP25:

• SSG is now at start.
• Red keycard room has been changed. Pillars were rotated slightly to give more room to move. ArchViles are now inactive until a switch is hit, which lowers red key. Imps teleport in beforehand.
• Revenants are now sealed off from the blood pit area until blue skull key acquired
• Recessed the skin panels at the chainsaw into the wall so they don't get in the way
• Made the light levels outside darker so they match the night sky
• Tweaked ammo pickups slightly.
• Added some subtle scrolling flesh textures here and there
• Increased the volume of the midi. It is now louder.
• rocket launcher moved to southwest corner
• swapped out blursphere for some health and rockets
• recessed the chainsaw into the wall
• fixed the slimetrail at the bottom Archvile
• pushed megahealth in secret cupboard further back so you can't grab it through the lowering wall
• some misc minor texture work

MAP26:

• Fixed some missing closets

MAP15:

• Re-arranged some shell placements, added 4 shells and 40 bullets

MAP23:

• fixed the soft-lock
• changed the map so it completely opens up after the end fight
• changed end fight timer
• telefrag cybers on timer end
• added some armor and health to reduce the difficulty a smidge
• made the blue armor secret easier to see changed
• the BFG secret to a plasma gun, added BFG to a new secret involving the wall
• changed some monsters per difficulty updated the invul secret to be hidden until the player gets onto the platform, platform changed to denote difference from the other 3
• raised the lava in the 3rd room

MAP28

• Fixed softlock caused by split linedef
• replace blocking hanging body with non-blocking one
• Added some extra cells for the final battle

MAP30

• Added monster-blocking lines to keep imps from falling off their platforms

MAP31:

• Small ammo change
• Teleport optimization
• Fixed missing MIDI
• The switch for super-secret level should now work correctly

General:

• Expanded and amended credits, both text file and in-game
• Added invisible sprite for Commander Keen so it would be hidden in all ports (When it makes a ding! sound)

•  

Edited December 11, 2020 by ViolentBeetle

[DoubleCakes]

Those final five levels were gruesome, but fittingly so. I was getting a little exhausted towards the end but overall I found this megawad to be very engaging and lots of fun, although I think when the wad starts getting into really wacked out ideas The Castle Floor, the wad loses some of its cohesiveness. I wish that there was more of a transition between one floor to the next but I also realize that is a tall order for a community project with multiple contributors, so I won't hold it against Hellevator.

 

Although this wad is not officially out yet, it is still one of my favourite releases this year. Great stuff!

[ViolentBeetle]

The wad was never meant to be cohesive, everyone just randomly decided to use techbase textures in early maps. What I like about the results is that everyone singled out a different type of maps to like about it.

Anyway, seems like we are mostly waiting on one last mapper to do his tweaks before we can go official release.

[P41R47]

Hi, guys!

I love the project, but since i (still) not know how to properly map, in the spirit of the project, I speedworked on this custom Status Bar during the weekend.

Load it along the megawad ;)

Here is a screeny of how it looks in-game:

Edited December 16, 2020 by P41R47

[galileo31dos01]

@P41R47 It looks good! I think the big numbers need to stand out a little more, like the shadows could be darker, and also the coloured cables(?) at the keys could use some gradients as well imo but that's harder to explain... something like this? 

 

Either way we could try to convince ViolentBeetle to add your bar :P

Edited December 15, 2020 by galileo31dos01

[Caleb13]

Ah yes, yet another "improved" status bar that is significantly harder to read than the original. I know, I know: being different at all costs is what counts today, quaint notions like actual usefulness are secondary.

[ChopBlock223]

I think the colored lines/cables representing the keys is a bit vague. The big numbers definitely can use a different look to them to be clearer to read.

[P41R47]

On 12/15/2020 at 4:10 AM, galileo31dos01 said:

I think the big numbers need to stand out a little more, like the shadows could be darker, and also the coloured cables(?) at the keys could use some gradients as well imo but that's harder to explain... something like this? 

Thanks for the feedback, pal!

I'm glad you like it :)

 

Gradient to the cables, yeah i think of adding it while making that part, but since they are just one pixel width i thought the tiny detail will go unnoticed and may difficult to differentiate the keys from the background. But yeah, it adds a lot and looks really good.

Gonna try to work it out somehow as gradient is one of the skills i need to polish a lot.

 

And yes, the numbers's shadow, thats an oversight hahaha, i made them darker, but forget to update them on the wad.  :P

 

19 hours ago, ChopBlock223 said:

I think the colored lines/cables representing the keys is a bit vague. The big numbers definitely can use a different look to them to be clearer to read.

I use @Dranyan M_DOOM concept as inspiration to made the bar. So i thought it would make for a cohesive look for the wad.

Maybe big nums a bit darker? I went for a big contrast with the background so it will be easy on the eye.

 

On 12/15/2020 at 4:10 AM, galileo31dos01 said:

Either way we could try to convince ViolentBeetle to add your bar :P

:/ i doubt it would be accepted.

i already offered this bar to him and it seems to be unfitting for the wad.

 

 

Anyway, since i made it for myself inspired by this project, i thought it would be right to share it, even if it was rejected, this bar is for this project, and surely someone will like it.

Here is a new version, thanks for the feedback @galileo31dos01 @ChopBlock223 @Caleb13
HellevatorSB.zip
 

Spoiler

 

Edited December 16, 2020 by P41R47

[Austinado]

Tried a little of the first map...got excited. 

[ViolentBeetle]

2 hours ago, Austinado said:

Tried a little of the first map...got excited. 

Would be interesting to hear more opinions from you.

[Keyboard_Doomer]

Hello,

 

seems like the wad is getting dangerously close to the release so the only thing left to do is break the maps in multiplayer. We invite you to join us for the first half of the megawad on Thursday Night Survival today.

The session starts at 19:00 GMT / 14:00 EST and you can expect it to be active for 4+ hours.

 

[ViolentBeetle]

3 minutes ago, Keyboard_Doomer said:

Hello,

 

seems like the wad is getting dangerously close to the release so the only thing left to do is break the maps in multiplayer. We invite you to join us for the first half of the megawad on Thursday Night Survival today.

The session starts at 19:00 GMT / 14:00 EST and you can expect it to be active for 4+ hours.

 

Good luck with that. It does have a co-op starts, but relies heavily on restricting access to starting area (Since it's also the exit area), half the maps would interact poorly with respawning players.

 

Edit: Seems like you aren't doing respawns, so I guess it'll be all good than.

Edited December 17, 2020 by ViolentBeetle

[Keyboard_Doomer]

No respawns indeed but this sort of stuff is still a common problem in multiplayer. I made some quick ham-fisted fixes for the session and if that's enough we still have scripts to deal with this.

 

If reports for multiplayer issues are welcome I'll try to keep track of them, even if there might be a lot to keep track of (but of course it's always best when mappers are there to witness any issues themselves).

[ViolentBeetle]

It would probably help to track all the instances where you find yourself locked out of progression, at least some of them could probably support unobtrusive solutions.

[ViolentBeetle]

I am also not quite sure how the massive-multiplayer spawning would interact with voodoo dolls that are present in every level. But I know nothing about multiplayer. Anyway, I hope it will work.