Bromine - Limit Removing Map

[jdagenet]

Somewhat large Limit-Removing level I designed in about a month and a half.

I don't exactly recall what drove me to create this... It just sort of happened and I slowly chipped away at it over time until I made something that I thought was worth while.
Map was designed and tested around UV, but difficulty settings are in fact implemented.

Screenshots:
 

Spoiler

I nor my playtesters found any bugs while playing so I don't think there's any, but of course if you do find something then please let me know!

List of credits is in the text file.

-DOWNLOAD LINK-

Edited November 15, 2020 by jdagenet

[Walter confetti]

This map looks pretty cool!

[Caleb13]

Ah, very nice, it's always refreshing to play maps with such oldschool feel. Possibly the only downside is uneven difficulty (I played on UV) - the map is rather hard after start,  because there is dearth of health. It becomes much easier after SSG and very easy after RL, even though I didn't find the plasmagun. Moreover, I was practically drowning in ammo after the RL and I used it to kill most of the remaining monsters. As a consequence, I had full bullets, shells and cells when I exited the map. But I don't necessarily view it as a bad thing, because old maps usually had large ammo surpuls, too.

[Biodegradable]

The map's a bit cramped and confusing, but it's also pretty fluid in its combat and progression. It can be pretty challenging in some instances, especially right out of the gate when all you have is a pistol. Considering the lack of health distribution at the start, I likely would've had an even tougher time if I hadn't used Zagemod with its health bonuses. However, I like how there's a lot of tension to this map, not just because it makes you paranoid of every corner, but also because there's a lot of barred areas that you can get shot through so you're always on the move. Pretty neat, creative and challenging map, fam.

 

 

[Aurelius]

Fun little map, a bit cramped indeed but nowhere near too tight. Everything was quite manageable on UV. There were only a few tougher traps in the later parts, but there was practically always a way out should you need a breather. Ammo is definitely much more plentiful than health, and in the latter half you could basically choose what to use since everything was maxed out. The super stacked secret sectors reminded me of Wolf3D secrets (in a good way). A bit sad I couldn't find a way to the plasma gun, but I didn't want to bloat the video with a secret hunt so I didn't spend too much time looking for it.

 

I died maybe two or three times, but only after I got the RL (the cramped spaces really accentuate rocket eating tendencies). The map was enjoyable interconnected, and the automap came in very handy with those same-y looking corridors. I don't mind a little snooping around though and liked the mild convolution, but it might help if you tried to differentiate areas better (alternate texture/color themes, maybe?) 

 

The only thing I'd change is remove block monster flags from the linedefs in the soulsphere room. The pinkies and imps are basically harmless since they can't engage you.

 

And here's the blind run (had some issues with my second monitor at the start, so don't mind the odd behaviour and occasionally blacking out):

 

 

Edited November 15, 2020 by Aurelius

[jdagenet]

Appreciate the feedback so far.
 

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The only thing I'd change is remove block monster flags from the linedefs in the soulsphere room. The pinkies and imps are basically harmless since they can't engage you.

The reason I did this was because since you can alert them from the high room above I didn't want those monsters venturing out from that room and over populating the space combined with the other enemies in the area. So, I put monster blocking lines as a way to just kind of force the player to fight just a little bit and earn the Soul Sphere.
 

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The map's a bit cramped and confusing, but it's also pretty fluid in its combat and progression.

I tried to keep the map pretty interconnected so some areas are definitely cramped but I tried to make sure that this wouldn't irritate the player too much by regulating what I threw at them and when.
A little bit of trivia: The current SSG originally wasn't an SSG placement, it was actually a Rocket Launcher, but based on some feedback I received the RL was a little too difficult to use enjoyably inside those small rooms so I switched some things around and dropped an SSG where it now currently is and moved the RL outside.

[Pechudin]

    So, I decided to give this a whirl. At first I thought I'd make a video, but before that I decided to play trough it blind without recording (I still may or may not record).

 

    I played it on UV, and managed to not die. I had a boring start, since I did not notice the chainsaw behind me at first, so I killed lots of monsters using the pistol only. Thankfully, the shotgun was close enough. I do have to admit the map dragged on a bit too long for my taste, and SSG/CG combo got old very fast. I had a crisis moment at the Archvile reveal, where I ran out of ammo and needed to backpedal to scrounge some shells. Ammo balance does seem to be good, though.

 

    The RL did eventually appear, and here the map became more fun. I like the RL-in-close-quarters trope. High risk, high reward, even if I almost died once thanks to Spectres being basically invisible in PrBoom+ in dark areas. Not much to say after that. The exit Archvile and Revenant combo could have been lethal, but I was vigilant.

 

    All in all, the map looks nice. Modern, I would say. I did not like how it did not seem to have a defining part. It just kind of kept going, and monster density was pretty uniform. That might just be my taste, as I like some spikes in monster density. Maybe not every hallway should have monsters is my opinion. The crampedness I did not have a problem with, as it did play well with the RL gameplay.

[Aurelius]

10 minutes ago, jdagenet said:

The reason I did this was because since you can alert them from the high room above I didn't want those monsters venturing out from that room and over populating the space combined with the other enemies in the area. So, I put monster blocking lines as a way to just kind of force the player to fight just a little bit and earn the Soul Sphere.

117 - DR Door Open Wait Close (fast) is not a monster triggerable linedef action, so even if they were alerted in that room they wouldn't be able to get out. You can also set up sound blocking linedefs around to room to mitigate unintentionally waking them up.

 

If you want to definitely make sure they won't wake up before you open the door, set a very small untextured sector within the window sector (that touches the edges of the window only at individual vertices) and put the floor 1 unit below the ceiling. This invisible wall will prevent them from being alerted from above. Bullets and projectiles will hit it though, so you'd have to put a midtex there or just not care about it :P 

 

I would also maybe merge the two doors do they open simultaneously. Feels appropriate to let the monsters possibly flank you from the other side.

[megamankiller69420]

fun smile :)

[jdagenet]

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117 - DR Door Open Wait Close (fast) is not a monster triggerable linedef action, so even if they were alerted in that room they wouldn't be able to get out.

Ah that's a good point actually. I could easily make that change.
 

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The RL did eventually appear, and here the map became more fun. I like the RL-in-close-quarters trope.

I feel like I would've gotten to many complaints if I only handed the player an RL like I had originally planned.
 

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 All in all, the map looks nice. Modern, I would say. I did not like how it did not seem to have a defining part. It just kind of kept going

Thanks. I really like larger maps with focus on flow and interconnectivity, so I personally don't mind a map that just kind of keeps going as long as it's enjoyable at least (which I hope mine was).

I really do appreciate the gameplay footage being posted, it's interesting to see just how people approach the situations differently from a fresh perspective.

[Wilster_Wonkels]

This is my new favourite Doom level. It is such a power fantasy. Like it's not easy, but it's also not ball-breakingly hard. It's got that perfect balance where I can handle myself, so long as I'm not an idiot. I love it, have no complaints at all, and cannot wait for more of your work. I've also never used the chainsaw more in my life.

Edited November 16, 2020 by Wilster_Wonkels

[Immorpher]

And ofcourse I had to have a go of it with Morph 64! 

 

[Degree23]

On 11/15/2020 at 9:41 PM, Pechudin said:

 The RL did eventually appear...

 

That's my only real gripe here. If you go through one of the red doors, you appear to not get a RL (as far as I could tell), and so I spent a sizeable amount of the map wandering around with 50 RL ammo, with more on the ground to spare, that I couldn't use. Given how much ammo there was for it, I expected to be getting a RL any time soon, but it took forever. It may be worth having a RL somewhere behind both red doors, or if there is one behind both, making them more obvious.

[jdagenet]

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This is my new favourite Doom level. It is such a power fantasy. Like it's not easy, but it's also not ball-breakingly hard. It's got that perfect balance where I can handle myself, so long as I'm not an idiot. I love it, have no complaints at all, and cannot wait for more of your work. I've also never used the chainsaw more in my life.

Appreciate the kind words @Wilster_Wonkels, really wasn't expecting that haha. I do have a tendency to make challenging maps in a sense that punishes the player for poor choices more so than just throwing a huge herd of monsters at them. But yeah, thanks a lot!
 

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It may be worth having a RL somewhere behind both red doors, or if there is one behind both, making them more obvious.

@Degree23 That's actually not a bad idea, or perhaps just place a door somewhere in the central area of the map that is red key locked and has the RL inside. I might play around with this idea a bit, thanks.

[ElPadrecitoCholo]

Bromine

 

Ultra-Violence || GZDoom || Tactic_Vanilla

 

Status:

*Deaths: 0

*Saves: none

 

(Bruh moment.mp4)

 

Without a doubt, it is a really huge map, to the point of really being too necessary to use the automap, since, although it has really good structures, a very great way to carry the details in specific places, the way they are. Each decoration that gives a different aspect to the areas that are being visited, and the great use that has been made of the toxic green liquid in various places on the map, make this wad look really interesting, very intriguing, but above all, with the feeling of wanting to explore everything it has, but one of its main problems, at least from my point of view, is that it has several areas and places with a really reduced space, to the point of making some fights feel uncomfortable for not having freedom of movement, in addition, as there are only areas of a slightly narrow size, it is a little easier to get lost in the different linearities that exist throughout the map, such as many corridors and so on, but outside that, everything else with the map was really good.

 

The difficulty is quite visible here, it is 100% appreciated that you have not included Slaughters areas, thus maintaining the tactical and calm rhythm that the map has when it presents the enemies, here all the normal enemies of Doom 2 appear, without exceptions, for which, it was to be expected some unthinkable encounters with certain resistant enemies, among them, the Archviles, the Revenants and the Cacodemons, but hey, in the end I had a great time, and I really managed to have fun with this wad. Very good job you have done partner.

[Immorpher]

Saveless on UV nice!

[ElPadrecitoCholo]

18 minutes ago, Immorpher said:

Saveless on UV nice!

 

It's possible to pass it without making many or no saves but with weapons full of ammunition, and being tactical to wait for moments when you must keep your distance, and in others where you must attack to escape danger without remedy.

[jdagenet]

@ElPadrecitoCholo Appreciate the review. I'm personally not a huge fan of straight up slaughter maps and things of that nature. I'm much more a fan of a map and encounter being difficult in a strategic way that encourages the player to sort of think about their approach and decisions so you'll rarely see slaughter stuff in my maps. Also, an hour and 24 minutes... You definitely took your time playing through it lol but I'm glad you mostly enjoyed it!

[ElPadrecitoCholo]

3 minutes ago, jdagenet said:

@ElPadrecitoCholo Appreciate the review. I'm personally not a huge fan of straight up slaughter maps and things of that nature. I'm much more a fan of a map and encounter being difficult in a strategic way that encourages the player to sort of think about their approach and decisions so you'll rarely see slaughter stuff in my maps.

 

@jdagenet I am quite happy to know that there are still players who prefer tactical maps, where the real difficulty lies in the use of knowing how to use the weapons that the marine has available, and the environment that surrounds him, planning places to ambush, and taking in Take into consideration the medikits that the map provides you to avoid being attacked many times, as well as the ammunition obtained, and not like those maps that put more than 30 enemies on the screen and then another 20 in a closed room, and so on, really I really like your mapping look, buddy, and I hope to have a lot of news about your future maps that you make.

 

7 minutes ago, jdagenet said:

Also, an hour and 24 minutes... You definitely took your time playing through it lol but I'm glad you mostly enjoyed it!

 

I am a tactical player, and I am also setting a personal goal to achieve the most Doom maps without dying or doing Saves of any kind, unless some difficulty exceeds my limits but generally, I try to do so. necessary to survive with ingenuity and not so much with strength, which makes me a little slower in progression, but is compensated by assured survival. By the way, you're welcome, it was a good experience for me to have tried your map and win it as much as possible, haha

[Krenium]

Jeeze, what a map!

 

 

I loved every minute of this. Bromine is pretty much my ideal type of Doom gameplay distilled into a fairly large map. I honestly have no criticism. It's beautiful and it flows well. The only time I needed to consult the automap was when I found the red and yellow keys and needed to find the blue key area. Difficulty is right in the absolute sweet spot. Couldn't have asked for better balance. I really liked the pistol + chainsaw start. Unique!

Edited November 27, 2020 by Krenium