labyrinth of the aku (2023 update) 90% done (features massive backrooms level)

[Aku]

late january update 2023- at this point the megawad is 90% complete
there are 29 playable levels being 1- 26 -29 and 31-32. 

theres even a larger number of unique enemies now, way over 100

level 29 is my tribute to the backrooms (in this version it skips level 27 and 28, those will be completed in the next update alongside level 30)

the previously released levels have been updated aswell to be more visually appealing, balanced and full of new secrets.

since my last release i had another computer stolen, so that had delayed me for some time, but i been working hard to progress this wad since the end of last year.
and i hope to have it fully finished within the next few months

here is the latest link (just had to fix an error in level 17 , so if you downloaded this link today, i apologies, here is the fix)
https://www.mediafire.com/file/i6b6twdbschp078/labyrinthofaku(wip-febuary2023fix).wad/file


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Previous post-ok this project has changed a lot since i last showcased my last update to it, now i have added lots of new enemies (around 80),textures,weapons (including necrocomicon, freeze wand, nail gun, saw thrower ext) and lots of special items for your inventory that add new elements to gameplay such as summonin creatures, putting down traps ext, i wanted to make this a game give the player options within stragedy that goes deeper then vanillia doom.

this update is long overdue after i lost my computer, and many weeks of work,luckily i retreieved what i backedup and rebuilt from their since i got a new computer, and its been a blessing in disguise considering how this wad is developing

this features levels 1 to 19 and 31,32
there is 4 new levels (16-19) and all the old levels have been reworked to some degree, will continue to tweek untill perfect.

their are also friendliest within the game to make the universe seem like not everyone is against you, friends will be found in your journey.

 

This was tested with gzdoom, is designed for continous play, all the assest have been taken from realm 667

 

Jump, crouch and look is allowed.
 

Edited January 28, 2023 by Aku
Wad progress updated, error fix

[Vorpal]

hey welcome back, hope you didn't lose everything

[Aku]

6 hours ago, Vorpal said:

hey welcome back, hope you didn't lose everything

  Thank you, i lost the the entire level 20 unfortently, it was a big forest level, but when i remake it i plan to do a few things diffrent , i will update this post in the future whenever i add levels as to not lose such progress again.

[DimLight]

Looks like an interesting wad judging from the screenshots, but-- 70mb ? Have you tried to remove unused sources using Slade or something to reduce the size ?

[Aku]

On 12/15/2020 at 5:48 PM, DimLight said:

Looks like an interesting wad judging from the screenshots, but-- 70mb ? Have you tried to remove unused sources using Slade or something to reduce the size ?

Have not of yet done that, but i have added a lot of elements which if not already used will be used in the upcomming levels im planning,  thou i have thought of a few things i could do without, so things will be removed in later versions, but i also plan to put a lot more into it aswell, more new items and more new monsters, which to me helps paint a more extensive universe to explore.

 

Plus it has over 80 new ememies within it, the ambition was always goin to result in a large file

 

Edited December 29, 2020 by Aku
Clearer

[Aku]

If anyone can give me some feedback on this wad, constructive criticism would be highly appreciated, im working on levels 20,21 and 22 at the moment, the themes being forest ,fallout and bizarr space city. Heres some images i just took from my phone for them, the next update im aiming to get out by january

[Vorpal]

On loading there are a ton of errors in the log, did not notice any negative effects though.

 

I went in blind to map16, just for the sake of testing your latest work. The wad is unplayable with infinitely tall actors (standard vanilla behavior), which is fine I can turn that off. But I wonder if there are other gameplay options are necessary.

 

Comments on map16:

Difficulty seemed extreme, although this is my first taste of the wad, so anything I might have learned about the mechanics and rules and whatnot in earlier maps, probably made this arbitrarily difficult for me. That said, I still found it fun, as I was testing a lot of things out and learning and being subjected to this mad man's alternate reality. Visually map16 isn't amazing but it accomplishes the feeling of an unpleasant not-human realm, danger, and isolation. The layout is good with opportunities for backtracking and useful connections that link important areas together. All of the (seemingly) friendly actors seem stuck in their rooms (due to AI? due to key door not being flagged as stay-open?)

 

comments on the gameplay mod in general:

revenent skull rocket launcher feels horrible with the delay before firing. imo any gun should perform its action instantly up front, and any delay should occur after the firing

medkits as inventory items feels horrible to me, I do love Hexen but I love Doom more, so health pickups going to inventory feels alien to me and hinders my survivability

summoner orb seems to only work if perfectly thrown away from any geometry/actors/scenery

 

Anyway, looking forward to testing 17-20, this wad is bonkers

 

 

[Aku]

Thanks for playing, the loading errors will be gone in the next update(figured out the problem since), as well as a lot of edits to make gameplay a bit smoother.

 

[Vorpal]

map17 comments:

I do enjoy city maps, and this one was unique. Plenty of people have made ruined cities but I dont think I've seen anyone go for a "converted city" theme. Teleport-doors were jarring at first but it was a common 90's workaround for simulating room-over-room, and 90's wads (and 90's style wads) hold a special place in my heart. Overall fun map, rewards exploration a lot (although at the same time the stingy health hinders exploration, more on that below), allows the player to get lost but also gives each area a memorable aesthetic so the player isn't TOO lost.

 

Rocket enemies were unfun

Extreme difficulty again, even though playing continuous now with previous map's kit. I'm still suffering from a major learning curve but still some difficulty comments pertain to the map. The initial horde being right in front of the spawn sortof hems the player in to a tiny play area, personally I think it would be more fun if the horde was at the fringes and the player was encouraged to roam a bit more. If a hemmed-in semi-slaughter at start was your goal though, leave it, it's just my cup of tea would have been more of a city streets roaming invasion.

Second, health was a maaaaajor problem, iirc there were only 2 health caches... it took me ~15 save/loads before I found the hospital at the opposite end of the map, I wouldn't mind this swapping places with a building closer to spawn (and an interior even with like triple the medkits). 

There were several apartment buildings with lifts that annoyed me (switch-repeatable on one side, walkover-repeatable on the other side... the walkover is what kept giving me issues).

I did waste a ton of time trying to remember where the skull-key-doors were. I blame myself but, it would have helped if the visual impact was something more substantial or more prominent. So when the player first walks by it leaves a bigger impression. Not super important but would be a nice flourish.

 

general mod gameplay comments:

A lot of custom weapons seem to have strange projectile behavior, like they don't go quite where expected. Either the projectiles are too big, or their origin is too low or something..

Too many weapons! Doom2 putting two weapons on the same number was a gameplay sin that should be avoided at all costs

Enemies with rockets are unfun. A cyberdemon gets a pass because he's loud, big, obvious. But cyber-barons and cyber-imps and whatnot having rockets just feels awful when getting instagibbed from across the map from something you couldn't have seen nor heard.

 

the vore texture made me cringe

"We store your crap" gave me a genuine lol (pretty much the last building I entered though)

 

 

Edited January 24, 2021 by Vorpal

[Aku]

I was feeling guilty seing you run around with 1% health, i will definetlly add some more health packs in the building rooms in the next update

[Vorpal]

map18 comments:

best of the bunch so far both in terms of gameplay and visuals. Generous supplies (still a tad stingy on health but I damned myself by not grabbing the invuln). I was legitimately creeped out in the maze, being low health and in these tight and quiet corridors, occasionally hearing the buzzing of a flying enemy... knowing that walls are going to lower and cut me off, or open and release something etc... I dug it. I come from the wolfenstein school where bullshit mazes and being lost are fun, so while my playthrough is going to be awful to watch, I was enjoying myself trying to figure out the madness.

 

map issues:

inconsistencies in teleporter behavior (some momentum, some standard)

as much trouble as hitscan-earthquake-guy gave me, some hallways should probably have their ceilings raised so he can be more menacing, because he's too tall to fit right now

one hall-of-mirror at the red key lowering wall

the klesks or whatever they are called got a bit tiresome in the outdoor area, I would recommend reducing their number by 25-50%, and then beefing up the amount of ground-level melee enemies, but thats just a personal taste thing

really hated the Dark Forces swimming blob things here, I think they'd be much better if only used for creep-factor very rarely

 

continued mod comments:

the grenade launcher bounce failed me miserably at its one purpose haha, should probably stop after 2-3 bounces

 

 

[Aku]

Oh looks like i forgot to put the lava floor demage on, sorry about that.

[General Rainbow Bacon]

Did you mean to spell the map "Dungeoun"?  "Dungeon" 

[Vorpal]

map19 comments:

the areas around spawn and yellow key felt weak, but the rest of the map was strong; enjoyed the disorienting "ice tunnels" that had their own tekwall maze via teleports, and the cyberdemon area was excellent. Actually I was disappointed that MORE didn't happen in the cyberdemon area, it's a simple but great little arena setup... when some guys/projectiles triggered the teleporter I got all excited thinking now an invasion was going to occur, before I realized they had only teleported out not in.

 

issues: Most of my playthrough is searching for a teleporter, not sure if I'm just dumb but maybe some more breadcrumbs to lead me where I was supposed to go. Still struggling with the volume of items/weapons, it detracts from gameplay heavily. Managed to break the "bone elevator" at 33:00. Various blue summon spheres were unobtainable. When I finally found an area where I needed light, flares proved useless, only granting a tiny radius of light. The mega-Korax boss was neat but trivialized since he can't pursue the player, personally I'd widen the gaps so the player isn't immune behind that big yellow wall, maybe even spawn an army in the dark hall to pressure the player from both sides if you are feeling mean. Oh and his screen shake was horrendous, highly recommend that be nuked.

 

Anyhoo take all my comments with a grain of salt, these are mostly my personal preferences and I'm not demanding changes. Some ofc you may deem bugs like the lava not hurting (oh fuck haha, my survival hinged on that). I dont really have the time to deep dive into the rest of the maps right now but I am looking forward to further updates you put out

 

 

[Aku]

New update- https://www.mediafire.com/download/g7oaxogx82swjh0

 

Sorry to anyone whom experienced the faults of the last years december update, this one is a smooth taste of whats too come and how things are comming along, thank you all for playing.

 

 

 

Edited January 28, 2023 by Aku

[Aku]

latest update-https://www.mediafire.com/file/i6b6twdbschp078/labyrinthofaku%28wip-febuary2023fix%29.wad/file

will be happy for as much constructive critism as possible so i can teak everything that can make this a better experience for everyone before i release the final version.

Edited January 28, 2023 by Aku

[General Rainbow Bacon]

The new levels look really neat.  Minor spelling error "Medieval Castle", unless you're going for the pun.  I'll give it a playthrough and let you know more later.

 

[Aku]

31 minutes ago, General Rainbow Bacon said:

The new levels look really neat.  Minor spelling error "Medieval Castle", unless you're going for the pun.  I'll give it a playthrough and let you know more later.

 

cheers, na just my bad spelling, i shall fix that up.
cool looking forward to your feedback.

-----
already after uploading this i just fixed up an error in level 17 with a out of place teleporters while i decided to add more health packs around remembering vorpals playthrough, seems i kinda messed that up while trying to enlarge the interiors awhile back.
so yeah i might need to just upload another version just to fix that problem up.

i just replaced the link so apologies to anyone who downloaded it already, the problems been fixed now.

Edited January 28, 2023 by Aku

[General Rainbow Bacon]

Took a look at some of the new levels and old levels just to see if you changed anything.  So here's a pointer about using new monsters:  Make sure you have a good reason for using all the new monsters and you're not just trying to cram as many as you can into these maps.  Yes adding new monsters is cool, but only if you use them well.  Some of them seem like they fit the themes of the maps and some of them don't.  Also, the stealth monsters in "Blue Palace" need to go.  They are going to piss people off and they don't add anything to gameplay.  The stealth arch viles you used in the forest were a good use of them though.  Toss them in more if you want :D  

 

So I'll keep looking at the maps, but generally Doom is better when you do more with less.  So see if you can either cut back on the new monsters and use each oneso that their unique new properties add to the gameplay more, or give each new monster a definite reason for being there, else I'd replace them with stock monsters.  

[Aku]

4 hours ago, General Rainbow Bacon said:

Took a look at some of the new levels and old levels just to see if you changed anything.  So here's a pointer about using new monsters:  Make sure you have a good reason for using all the new monsters and you're not just trying to cram as many as you can into these maps.  Yes adding new monsters is cool, but only if you use them well.  Some of them seem like they fit the themes of the maps and some of them don't.  Also, the stealth monsters in "Blue Palace" need to go.  They are going to piss people off and they don't add anything to gameplay.  The stealth arch viles you used in the forest were a good use of them though.  Toss them in more if you want :D  

 

So I'll keep looking at the maps, but generally Doom is better when you do more with less.  So see if you can either cut back on the new monsters and use each oneso that their unique new properties add to the gameplay more, or give each new monster a definite reason for being there, else I'd replace them with stock monsters.  

ok noted, i really love the stealth barons and hell knights but perhaps i will turn them back to normal if its only goin to piss people off.
just letting you know level 25 is kinda lacking in ammo, a problem i unfortunately overlooked while being all hyped about releasing level 29, but i have since fixed that, so next update wont have that problem anymore.

[General Rainbow Bacon]

Cool, sounds good.  You can keep a few of the stealth guys in opportunistic jump-scare places.  The reason stealth enemies are a bit of a put off is because most of the enemies are able to attack so fast that there's no warning that you're approaching them and all of a sudden you're dead.  There was a room full of stealth imps that you might consider editing back too.  Maybe just make half of them stealth or something.  Also, the backrooms map is awesome!  Make it even bigger! :D

 

E: I've been toying around with making an entire backrooms megawad based on some of the popular backrooms floors on the page about it.  If that's something you'd like to join and do later, let me know.  I really only want to do it if I can get some other mappers and it gets some popularity.

Edited January 29, 2023 by General Rainbow Bacon

[Aku]

6 hours ago, General Rainbow Bacon said:

Cool, sounds good.  You can keep a few of the stealth guys in opportunistic jump-scare places.  The reason stealth enemies are a bit of a put off is because most of the enemies are able to attack so fast that there's no warning that you're approaching them and all of a sudden you're dead.  There was a room full of stealth imps that you might consider editing back too.  Maybe just make half of them stealth or something.  Also, the backrooms map is awesome!  Make it even bigger! :D

 

E: I've been toying around with making an entire backrooms megawad based on some of the popular backrooms floors on the page about it.  If that's something you'd like to join and do later, let me know.  I really only want to do it if I can get some other mappers and it gets some popularity.

i usually put the stealth imps alongside the imp warlords, is it the level 25 or 31 accounter you talking about, cause the ones on level 31 are stuck within their lava island,
i just like how stealth enemies raise the tensions, but i also usually restrict them to closed area encounters where you start gunning down one you reveal the others.

im glad you like backrooms level, i was actually thinking about ways it could be even bigger, then i ask myself do i really want to make it easier for people to get lost in lol(well its the backrooms so probrbly yeah) there are a few ideas to expand, like meg outposts and such, one thing i will have to do is put more save state pickups around those larger levels.
i know i had put one before the run for your life room leading to the end.

yeah theres been a few people talking about creating a backrooms megawad and there is so much source material, i do love tryinng to recreat those areas to look like the luminal space photos.

would have to add almond water as an inventory item, something i was contemplating doing for this level but never got around too it.

[General Rainbow Bacon]

The map 25 encounter is the stealth imp one i'm talking about.

[Aku]

just took a video playing through the backrooms level as thats what people probrably want to see.
 there is two occasions within it for which i need to creat some block sound lines, to keep things where they belong, but with a bit more polishing i think people could rerally enjoy it