THE DEMON BLADE (Supercharge)

[DragonsForLunch]

Welcome to The Demon Blade. Fight your way through forest, small villages, catacombs and dungeons to find the LEGENDARY DEMON BLADE, a powerful weapon that can slay any demon in it's wake. Using the awesome Supercharge by @Tango.

 

My goal with this map was to create a atmospheric and cinematic journey through a fantasy settings while also creating some intense combat encounters. I initially built a small area to test out Hexen 2 textures and eventually this whole map grew out of that area. I actually ended up using a lot more of BAKER'S LEGACY TEXTURE PACK than the Hexen 2 textures as Bakers texture pack includes a lot more hi-def versions of the same/similar textures as the Hexen ones.

 

It's by far the longest map I've built and also the one with the highest amount of monsters (More than 450 monsters to slay). It should take you around 25-35 minutes to get through.

 

I hope everything works as I've never assembled a .pk3 file before! Looking forward to getting your feedback!

 

THE DEMON BLADE v1_1

---- Download here ---

 

README

Spoiler

Name: The Demon Blade
Map Format: Zdoom (Doom in Doom format)
Ports Tested: GZDOOM
IWAD: DOOM 2
Map(s): Map01
Music: Dark Ambient Music Pack 3 by Doomenator (https://zandronum.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=5826)
Gameplay: Single-player
Difficulty Settings: Yes, but UV highly recommended
Multiplayer Placement: No
Build Time: Spare time throughout October 2020
Textures: Hexen 2, Baker's Legacy Texture Pack
Other mods: Supercharged, Zombie fodder and a few other props from Realm667. I also slighted tweaked one of the weapons ever so slightly
Requirements: Freelook recommended because of verticality

 

Screenshots

Edited October 27, 2020 by DragonsForLunch
Updated to v1.1

[Tango]

what an awesome little adventure, this was great :D you definitely delivered on the atmosphere here, it was really nice. the zombie fodder were really fun to mow down with a chaingun, and the Demon Blade itself was amazing hahah. I did seem to get myself stuck at one point, not sure how exactly it happened though. there's a door to that far western section that nets you the yellow key, and as I was approaching the door to enter that area, it closed on me and I couldn't find a way to reopen it. I ended up just noclipping through the door and all was well from that point!

 

you might want to consider adding a "Tag" property to the zombie fodder enemies, so that they show up properly with mods like Target Spy. I also found this HOM at one point, didn't catch any other visual glitches though.

 

thanks so much for making something so kickass for Supercharge :D

[DragonsForLunch]

3 hours ago, Tango said:

what an awesome little adventure, this was great :D you definitely delivered on the atmosphere here, it was really nice. the zombie fodder were really fun to mow down with a chaingun, and the Demon Blade itself was amazing hahah. I did seem to get myself stuck at one point, not sure how exactly it happened though. there's a door to that far western section that nets you the yellow key, and as I was approaching the door to enter that area, it closed on me and I couldn't find a way to reopen it. I ended up just noclipping through the door and all was well from that point!

 

you might want to consider adding a "Tag" property to the zombie fodder enemies, so that they show up properly with mods like Target Spy. I also found this HOM at one point, didn't catch any other visual glitches though.

 

thanks so much for making something so kickass for Supercharge :D

awesome thanks! 

 

I'll have a look to see if I can add that tag and fix the texture! 

 

To open the catacombs door

Spoiler

There's a switch behind one of the column that opens a detour through a village and forest. Then you get to another switch that opens the door to the catacombs! Might a bit too hard to find

 

[Bridgeburner56]

This looks cool

[TheNoob_Gamer]

Cool stuff. Though I'm a bit confused at the technical info - why did you make something meant for GZDoom in ZDoom map format?

[DragonsForLunch]

13 hours ago, TheNoob_Gamer said:

Cool stuff. Though I'm a bit confused at the technical info - why did you make something meant for GZDoom in ZDoom map format?

 

Thanks. Hmm I have no clue. I'm a bit confused by all the different formats to be honest. I only play and test things in GZDoom but it might work elsewhere

[RonnieJamesDiner]

On 11/2/2020 at 2:04 PM, DragonsForLunch said:

I'm a bit confused by all the different formats to be honest. I only play and test things in GZDoom but it might work elsewhere

 

It takes some time to get familiar with all of the different formats, source ports, and compatibilities, so no worries.

 

The Demon Blade -- UV, 100% kills, 5/6 secrets

 

As a massive Supercharge fan I'd been meaning to check this out, and I had a great time! Loved the atmosphere and the setting, slowly creeping through little villages littered with headstones, and into the foggy tunnels, caves and crypts was lovely. Your cave designs are awesome, and had some of my favorite fights! Progression felt buttery smooth as the combat and weapons gradually ramped up, and I thought you utilized the Supercharge assets beautifully -- both the monsters and decorations (those trees and the animated leaves blowing in the wind are so underused). Part of me wished the new Zombie Fodder posed a bit more of a threat, but they're certainly fun to mow down. And that titular Demon Blade was an over-powered joy to wield! 

 

This is a nice, casual, heavily atmospheric little adventure. Great choice of textures and music, and overall it really plays to it's strengths. I'd absolutely love to see more maps like this.

 

Two things I wanted to make a note of:

Spoiler

 

I feel like there should be a bit of a rocky lip around the edge of this sludge, rather than just a straight cut off.

 

 

I loved that I had to poke at this Diabolist through the window in order to get him to open the door (very cool idea!), but I was surprised it wasn't a secret?

       

[Bridgeburner56]

Just finished playing this. Really enjoyed it, fun map with some nice set ups and a good atmosphere. Loved the ending :D
Playthrough is the last half hour of the just finished stream.

[DragonsForLunch]

@RonnieJamesDiner Thanks for the review! I appreciate it. Yeah, I'm considering doing more maps with the same atmosphere. Probably shorter maps in an episode or something. 

 

Hm. That Diabolist is actually supposed to come out the door when you get close, so maybe there's an oversight somewhere. thanks!

 

@Bridgeburner56 Just watched your playthrough. I'm glad you enjoyed it. I can see some of the enemies near the first key are a bit too grindy for the weapon loadout, so I'm gonna give that a fix. Good thoughts about getting the caves more dark too!

[Juka]

Just played through it in UV and enjoyed it a lot! I think this map is a prime example of how to use fog properly both as an atmospheric and gameplay element, there's plenty of open areas with enemies attacking you from the fog so you're constantly dodging projectiles when they're already somewhat close, that's a good point in my book :p

Everything in the map is just very well done, the encounters are interesting and the atmosphere is on point, I have only two minor nitpicks (spoilers because it's around the end of the map):
 

Spoiler

1: The last fight before finding The Demon Blade is pretty hard, but it turns out I could wake them up before going down the point of no return, so I kinda cheesed the fight by making most enemies infight themselves before dropping down. I don't know if that's intended, but it felt interesting to point out.

 

2: Minor texture misalignment near the end, it stands out because everything else in the map is so perfectly polished!

 

3: I really wish we had more time with The Demon Blade, I agree it's overpowered (as intended obviously) but ramming into hordes of enemies with it is was very fun, maybe a room of fodder Barons and Zombies would do it!

 

Really looking forward to playing more maps like this!

Edited November 11, 2020 by Juka

[Biodegradable]

Fantastic work, Dragon, this is your best map yet. I'm really impressed with the level of creativity on display. A gloomy romp through a desolete landscape littered with grave stones and shrouded in fog, perfect for the Supercharge sprite variants with fun combat and straightforward progression. I got momentarily stuck at a certain point, but it's a silly point, so please feel free to laugh at me for it hehe. Really awesome work, dude.

 

 

[AL-97]

Always had a soft spot for semi-realistic maps and yours certainly delivers. Nice detailing, cohesive design, several unique "biomes" that you get to explore and just the right difficulty. Definitely one of the better maps released this year. Great work!

 

 

 

[Krenium]

This was a lot of fun! It's always nice to see maps made for specific gameplay mods. I notice you have hordes and hordes of pinkies and they're still no match for the OP chainsaw, heh.

 

EDIT: Oh, I just realized the OP chainsaw is not part of the normal Supercharge and is, in fact, in reference to the name of the map. The Demon Blade! Neat.

Edited November 15, 2020 by Krenium

[DragonsForLunch]

On 11/12/2020 at 3:08 PM, Biodegradable said:

Fantastic work, Dragon, this is your best map yet. I'm really impressed with the level of creativity on display. A gloomy romp through a desolete landscape littered with grave stones and shrouded in fog, perfect for the Supercharge sprite variants with fun combat and straightforward progression. I got momentarily stuck at a certain point, but it's a silly point, so please feel free to laugh at me for it hehe. Really awesome work, dude.

 

Thanks for the kind words! It's always great to see your playthroughs! You're not the only one who got stuck on that part so I'm gonna fix it in a small update soon.

[eLeR Creative]

Great map. I have included my detailed opinion in the form of a commentary to the following video. 

Subtiltes EN / PL

 

Edited December 12, 2020 by eLeR Creative

[vrenlyet]

I'm usually not a fan of moody DOOM maps, but this one drew me in immediately. Played it all the way through and loved it.

 

Level design and pacing is great; the ambience (visual and audio) is very enjoyable and makes you want more.

Some really fun encounters, too. The included SuperCharge mod fits perfectly.

 

Too bad it's only a single map - I believe I'd enjoy an entire episode in this style. :)