Hell's Farthest Shore - Epic Single Player Doom Map

[LordEntr0py]

**UPDATED WITH MINOR FIXES 24 JUNE 2021**

 

Optimistically started this on 1st July, hoping to speedmap a Doom episode in a month. Nearly 7 months later, I finished my first map for the episode.

 

This is technically my first completed Doom map (outside of a couple of Speedmapping sessions in ASS46 and ASS49), but I've been quietly dabbling on and off since about 1996/1997.

 

Quote

 

Hell's Farthest Shore -- The Command Center

 

Across the vast multiverse, a million million versions of our green marine battle through a million million versions of the Deimos base, all twisted by a single Hell-dimension.

 

In this reality, the Void encroaches and plays tricks on the mind. In this reality, the tormented souls of hell bleed through. In this reality, the line between the Administration Committee's deranged planning and Hell's corrupting touch is impossible to draw.

 

Weep for this marine, for in his reality... Deimos lives.

 

 

Hell's Farthest Shore will be a replacement episode for The Shores of Hell, with a focus on huge, imposing architecture and atmospheric exploration, punctuated with frantic combat.

 

The map I've completed will one day replace E2M5, but as I'm releasing it as a single level for now, it's currently listed as E2M1.

 

There is a secret exit to find (but at the moment it'll just take you to Sandy Petersen's E2M9). I don't normally enjoy looking for secret exits though, so opening the way to the Fortress of Mystery is more of a reward for paying attention and fully exploring the level, rather than locating hard-to-find secrets. Parts of this side-quest are slightly hidden, but I've tried to signpost them in a way that fully explorative play will find them.

 

Download here.

 

Screens:

 

More screens:

Spoiler

 

 

FORMAT: Boom/MBF; tested on both PrBoom (Complevel 11 I think?) and GZDoom. 
IWAD: Doom.wad (why Doom 1? (a) because The Shores of Hell is my favourite premise, and (b) I wanted the challenge of creating unique situations with Doom's limited monster list)
MAP NUMBER: E2M1 (for now)
RESTRICTIONS: Jumping/Crouching disabled; Designed not to require mouselook, but use mouselook if you want. You'll get a better look at some of the architecture and detailing, and it might make things easier in a couple of situations.

BUILD TIME: 300 hours. (I'm not even kidding. I estimate I must have averaged 2 hours a night most nights since 1st of July. As I saw myself improved I ended up redoing entire sections over and over again. There's little from the first month or so of work that's recogniseable now.)
EXPECTED PLAY TIME: One hour.
DIFFICULTY SETTINGS: Fully supported. HNTR is pretty gentle. UV packs a few punches but was never supposed to be punishing. *Yes* that's a high monster count, but I promise you it's *not* a slaughtermap.
KNOWN ISSUES: None, functionally. If you try hard enough you can fall into one inescapable death-pit towards the end, but I made reasonable effort to stop you from doing it, so if you manage to then... tough. You brought it on yourself.
REQUESTED FEEDBACK: The usual gameplay stuff, but also, I might have skimped on detailing a few places as I'm running very low on linedef budget and I'm holding back the last 100 or so for post-test fixes. Additional feedback appreciated on whether any areas seem relatively "bare-bones".

COOP/MULTIPLAYER: Not supported at this time. There's one potential softlock for co-op, and you'd be insane to try deathmatch on this.

 

ADDITIONAL CREDITS: @Mechadon for the skies (except my hokey recolouring of SP_FACE) and @Jimmy for the MIDI ("Moaning Souls" -- utterly perfect).

Edited June 24, 2021 by LordEntr0py

[Terminus]

Wow.

Those screenshots look sick dude. And this uses Moaning Souls as the music track too? You have me sold.

Gonna be checking this out!

[Dis.]

wow the first maps are awesome and well done, I highly recommend it

[Silhouette 03]

@LordEntr0py , if you want some more testers, have a look at this thread:

 I hope this helps....

[holaareola]

Wow, love the name and those exterior shots in particular are fantastic!

[Biodegradable]

 

[LordEntr0py]

17 minutes ago, Biodegradable said:

gameplay vid

Thanks dude! At work, but keen to watch this properly.

Confused about the music as there is definitely supposed to be some...

[adamastor]

Greetings, my liege.

 

Just beat your map on GLBoom, complevel 11, with 100% kills, having missed a handful of items and many secrets, including the Red Skull Key, which I'll get back to.
I'm a fan of shore of hell type levels, and your take on that concept and it's theme is great. The aesthetic, dimension, and overall architecture of this map is definitely it's strongest point, in my opinion.

- The first thing I want to point out is the place where the player first gets the Rocket Launcher. As in Biodegradable's video, I had to noclip through that structure to fight my first Baron and progress through the level. I really couldn't figure out how to progress in any other way. I'm sure this was an oversight on my part, but it's the only real negative issue I have to point out; 

- The level is huge, and progress in it is more about the journey than the average Doom level, which isn't a bad thing at all and, although convuloted, I didn't get lost in it, and I think the abundance of landmarks and unlockable paths contribute to this;

 

- Combat is entertaining and challengiong, albeit manageable, in UV, especially for a Shores of Hell replacement, although those ambushes with lots of Imps and some hitscanners are very well executed, the arena format contributing to it. The crown jewel is definitely the final arena with the Rocket Launcher and that massive horde surrounding you. Top-notch combat with that monster roster;

 

- Moaning Souls is great, and it complements the map well;

- As you yourself pointed out, some of the areas in the map, mostly the far-off ones in the more open, brownish areas, do feel somewhat "bare-bones" due to it's simple design and lack of mosnters and items, although that's only natural given the scope of the map. You could think about trimming those edges, even if it meant cutting some of it's lenght though;

 

- The areas where the player acquires the keys are very interesting, mostly the Yellow one, but the places where the skulls are awesome, working as a kind of hub in-level, and being a hellish trip at the same time. Awesome;

- Finally, you could consider spreading some enemies through the less arena-like paths, and bringing in more Barons, perhaps. Also, although that last arena battle was awesome, the moment you flip the switch near the non-secret exit in the open space could do with a Cybie showing up, or something of the sort, although I assume you didn't go with that to save that boss-type to a later level, if you do make a whole episode;

I hope this is useful and, if you do make an episode out of this, it'll be incredible. It was a great level, and I'd recommend it to anyone whose tastes encompass an epic, harsh, journey through a corrupted land.

[LordEntr0py]

Major facepalm! Sorry, the stairs were indeed broken and it's because I messed up the linedefs after playing with the detailing again in that area. Have already fixed it in the download. Thanks for pressing on!

Thanks @Biodegradable and @Adamast0r for the time to play and offer feedback.

 

Sorry for not better signposting some of the shortcuts you missed, @Biodegradable. There's a long backtrack you did which wasn't necessary, after falling off a platform near the lava in the caves.

And I'm going to make more effort to signpost some of the switches to open the "gateways" into the Void, unlocking the secret level. I was hoping the pair of switches to open the early yellow one would serve as a tutorial for that mechanic, but it's too easy to miss that one. Guess I hid them better than I intended to.

 

 

Edited January 19, 2021 by LordEntr0py

[Clippy]

I didn't think I would have time to try this today but then I had time but I still didn't have time cause this map is HUGE

 

Amazing detail I was blown away but maybe too big and too long, 1:20 in and still not done lol, but here is part 1:

 

 

[LordEntr0py]

1 hour ago, Clippy said:

I didn't think I would have time to try this today but then I had time but I still didn't have time cause this map is HUGE

 

Amazing detail I was blown away but maybe too big and too long, 1:20 in and still not done lol, but here is part 1:

 

 

I am extremely grateful for the time you took to play through this.
 

* Thanks for figuring out the music issue!

* The player voodoo doll you found wasn't supposed to be there. It's an error on my part. Sorry about that.
* Every switch affects something visible from where it stands, but I think some of the subsequent ambushes prevent you from being able to watch the result.
* I could do with better signposting for quite a few things -- namely the yellow key switch, the yellow key door, the optional quest for the plasma gun, the rising platforms (the switch which raised them released all those lost souls in the starting area), the path back to the teleporter after picking up the red key...

* I am clearly rather stingy with health along the way. Some of it is too well-hidden!

* I'm still doing a poor job of signposting the red skull switches and their purpose: three pairs, to open the three red, blue and yellow "void gates", which you saw but I hadn't done a good enough job of displaying the purpose of. I might do away with the confusing switch hunt and just have the gates open up more readily.

* ammo is clearly a bit tight in the latter third of the map. Definitely gonna be more generous with rockets. My philosophy was that nobody should be fighting barons with a shotgun. It's why I haven't used more barons than I have.

I don't think the rest of the maps will anywhere near this complex. This could probably have been three decent-sized maps and retained a feeling of taking place on an epic scale.

By the way, when/if you return to it, you should head back around past the room you had the last big fight in. Another route I could have better signposted. :-P

[Spie812]

First off, the errors I found in the current download. Apart from those mentioned in other posts which I also encountered, the highlighted sectors in this area of the map (near sector 6752) are erroneously marked as damaging. One of the sectors is also accidentally sunk into the ground. I also noticed a lot of visual jank looking around the final arena as well.

Spoiler

 

 

Now for the rest of the level. Due to the length of the level, I guess I'm going to be making more sweeping statements rather than referring to specific encounters.

 

The level is very very busy visually, perhaps too many textures for my tastes. The layout is really good and the progression was also done well all things considered, though I occasionally got a bit turned around as to where to go next, probably due to the above. I liked the brief hellish escapades, the pentagram fight in particular was a neat idea.

 

The incidental combat between arenas is serviceable, about what I'd expect from Doom 1, though I will echo the sentiment that I wish there were a few more barons wandering around. There were several large areas that were mostly devoid of both enemies and items, and I feel those could be either populated or trimmed.

 

The multi wave arena fights are excellently done. I enjoyed them a lot. The climactic battle is also great, though again I feel like it needs a few of the tougher enemies mixed in. Overall, this level is long as hell and a bit too visually busy for me, but is otherwise a phenomenal first effort.

 

Here's my FDA. Managed it in one go, which is nice because I probably wouldn't have the motivation to continue if I died halfway. ~45min

hellshore_fda.zip

Edited January 21, 2021 by Spie812

[adamastor]

I was just starting to replay the new version and I'm having an issue with the map's music. Instead of Moaning Souls it's playing I Sawed the Demons.
I find it weird, as the first time I played the map (the first version of it) the track played correctly.
I also took this screen of the voodoo problem, right on the start of the level: doom02.rar
The source port I'm using, as in my first run, is GLBoom +.

Edited January 21, 2021 by Adamast0r

[LordEntr0py]

7 minutes ago, Adamast0r said:

I was just starting to replay the new version and I'm having an issue with the map's music. Instead of Moaning Souls it's playing I Sawed the Demons.
I find it weird, as the first time I played the map (the first version of it) the track played correctly.
I also took this screen of the voodoo problem, right on the start of the level: doom02.rar
The source port I'm using, as in my first run, is GLBoom +.

Thank you!

Clippy actually figured out the music problem -- turns out I had added the music as E2M5 instead of E2M1. I believe the music and voodoo doll have both been resolved in the current version (sorry).

[Clippy]

42 minutes ago, LordEntr0py said:

Thank you!

Clippy actually figured out the music problem -- turns out I had added the music as E2M5 instead of E2M1. I believe the music and voodoo doll have both been resolved in the current version (sorry).

 

Glad I could help. I finished your map but there is still a fair amount of secrets & monsters I missed. The map is so friggin huge I don't even know where to begin looking for what I missed. But here is the conclusion of my playthough :)

 

You surely know this map like the back of your hand but boy oh boy is it overwhelming for a first time experience, I feel like I could study this map for a year and still not see everything lol

 

Good stuff tho - extremely impressive. I look forward to seeing @HAK3180 play this one!

 

 

 

[LordEntr0py]

6 hours ago, Spie812 said:

First off, the errors I found in the current download. Apart from those mentioned in other posts which I also encountered, the highlighted sectors in this area of the map (near sector 6752) are erroneously marked as damaging. One of the sectors is also accidentally sunk into the ground. I also noticed a lot of visual jank looking around the final arena as well.

  Reveal hidden contents

 

 

Now for the rest of the level. Due to the length of the level, I guess I'm going to be making more sweeping statements rather than referring to specific encounters.

 

The level is very very busy visually, perhaps too many textures for my tastes. The layout is really good and the progression was also done well all things considered, though I occasionally got a bit turned around as to where to go next, probably due to the above. I liked the brief hellish escapades, the pentagram fight in particular was a neat idea.

 

The incidental combat between arenas is serviceable, about what I'd expect from Doom 1, though I will echo the sentiment that I wish there were a few more barons wandering around. There were several large areas that were mostly devoid of both enemies and items, and I feel those could be either populated or trimmed.

 

The multi wave arena fights are excellently done. I enjoyed them a lot. The climactic battle is also great, though again I feel like it needs a few of the tougher enemies mixed in. Overall, this level is long as hell and a bit too visually busy for me, but is otherwise a phenomenal first effort.

 

Here's my FDA. Managed it in one go, which is nice because I probably wouldn't have the motivation to continue if I died halfway. ~45min

hellshore_fda.zip

Thanks for your time  on this. Wow that visual jank is quite something. I can't tell from the image, but I wonder if it's a nodebuilder thing. I'll figure it out.

Appreciate the honest feedback about the amount of visual noise. Makes a lot of sense, and kinda explains why I found some areas difficult to produce screenshots for!

[LordEntr0py]

32 minutes ago, Clippy said:

 

Glad I could help. I finished your map but there is still a fair amount of secrets & monsters I missed. The map is so friggin huge I don't even know where to begin looking for what I missed. But here is the conclusion of my playthough :)

 

You surely know this map like the back of your hand but boy oh boy is it overwhelming for a first time experience, I feel like I could study this map for a year and still not see everything lol

 

Good stuff tho - extremely impressive. I look forward to seeing @HAK3180 play this one!

 

 

 

oh, my god. This comes with the realisation that I have somehow COMPLETELY BROKEN the final fight in between versions.  The sectors have been dragged about somehow. That explains the utterly broken visuals. There should be a hefty cacoswarm teleporting in from behind you, on UV.

 

That was why there were so many extra rockets.

FFS.

 

The other problem with such a huge map: it's very hard to notice when you've dragged a sector out of shape somehow

[Clippy]

4 minutes ago, LordEntr0py said:

oh, my god. This comes with the realisation that I have somehow COMPLETELY BROKEN the final fight in between versions.  The sectors have been dragged about somehow. That explains the utterly broken visuals. There should be a hefty cacoswarm teleporting in from behind you, on UV.

 

That was why there were so many extra rockets.

FFS.

 

The other problem with such a huge map: it's very hard to notice when you've dragged a sector out of shape somehow

 

That's the problem with epic huge maps, fix one thing, break something else - makes sense now - sorry buddy, I been there

 

That would make the final fight much more epic indeed

 

Good luck fixing it

 

Paging @HAK3180 you may wanna wait for the update (If it's not too late)

Edited January 21, 2021 by Clippy

[LordEntr0py]

@Clippy to answer your linedef query, I reached Boom capacity:

 

14 caco teleporters, all look like this. I have no idea how i managed it, as they are all different sectors.

[LordEntr0py]

@Clippy @HAK3180 Fixed!

Also made the "void gate" mechanic a lot easier to understand by forcing the player attention towards the fact that finding two nearby red skull switches will open one.

The exceptions to the "visual change" rule with the switch are some of the red skull switches and those three at the end -- all three lower the platform where the final battle takes place.

 

Thanks again @Clippy. Your help was fantastic.

Edited January 21, 2021 by LordEntr0py

[Clippy]

13 minutes ago, LordEntr0py said:

@Clippy @HAK3180 Fixed!

Also made the "void gate" mechanic a lot easier to understand by forcing the player attention towards the fact that finding two nearby red skull switches will open one.

The exceptions to the "visual change" rule with the switch are some of the red skull switches and those three at the end -- all three lower the platform where the final battle takes place.

 

Thanks again @Clippy. Your help was fantastic.

 

No problem, glad I could help  - this is the benefit and joy of playtesting, more views & more perspectives - best chance to work out all kinks :)

 

You did an amazing job on this map - I hope more ppl check it out!

[DavidN]

All right, this is absolutely ridiculous - how is this your first map?! What an ambitious and incredible project - I love how... overdone everything is (even secrets which could reasonably have been little closets have clever tricks to them that make them wind around into previously seen portions of the map). The map's take on "base being corrupted by hell" is great, it feels much more organically entwined like Doom Eternal does instead of just being a base with some hell textures in it. Here is my experience!

 

 

[Fluuschoen]

Very nice detailing (my kind of guy : >) on huge proportions. I think I'm gonna play this over the weekend. The Shores of Hell is also my favorite premise!

I'm not exactly a "let's make a video" dude, but I can record a demo if you'd like (does that support saves/loads?).

Edited January 22, 2021 by Fluuschoen

[LordEntr0py]

6 hours ago, Fluuschoen said:

Very nice detailing (my kind of guy : >) on huge proportions. I think I'm gonna play this over the weekend. The Shores of Hell is also my favorite premise!

I'm not exactly a "let's make a video" dude, but I can record a demo if you'd like (does that support saves/loads?).

If you would like to offer feedback, and format is wonderful. 😊

[Fluuschoen]

3 hours ago, LordEntr0py said:

If you would like to offer feedback, and format is wonderful. 😊

For sure, bro! I'm not confident it will be adequate, but I'm gonna try it anyways.

[LordEntr0py]

12 hours ago, DavidN said:

All right, this is absolutely ridiculous - how is this your first map?! What an ambitious and incredible project - I love how... overdone everything is (even secrets which could reasonably have been little closets have clever tricks to them that make them wind around into previously seen portions of the map). The map's take on "base being corrupted by hell" is great, it feels much more organically entwined like Doom Eternal does instead of just being a base with some hell textures in it. Here is my experience!

Spoiler

 

 

 

 

 

Well if you're going to shower every map I do with the kind of compliments you gave me in this video, you can definitely play them! :-D

 

• Strictly speaking, it's not my first effort - I made a bunch of maps in the 90s which I never dared to share. And a bunch of fairly ropey unfinished ones a year or two ago. And a couple of passable speedmaps in the Abyssal Speedmapping events. It's just that my inner critic forbade me from exposing my early attempts. Which is probably a shame because the feedback on those would have made my journey to creating this a lot less arduous.
• You're the first person I've seen find the early soul sphere secret, possibly because of your GZDoom settings making some of the dark areas less dark (in the latest version I added a little extra signposting to make it less obscure). You're also the first person I've seen get the secret by shooting those flesh eyes in the eerie "mirror world" section on the south edge of the map (the section which my friend points out appears to contain an actual "Shore of Hell" and I love him for it because now I can pretend it was intentional). Again, it might be that they don't stand out enough to be seen by players with different light rendering.
• Thanks for spotting those SW2 buttons. After your Visual Language of Doom video, I went over my map and tried to eliminate all the SW2 textures. Also, almost all my switches close off or disappear after pressing them. I  can only think of one that doesn't an it's really an oversight.
• The visual jank on those pillars in the final area was a bug in the version you were playing. I somehow ballsed up the 14 caco teleporters, which have a massive effect on the final battle. You didn't have the large cacoswarm bearing down on you from behind in the final battle. It should have been a lot crueller than it was ;-) (if you're curious, see my screenshot from UDB above where the sectors appear to have been dragged out of place somehow)
• Seeing how low you got on ammo towards the end, and a couple of other players, I'm considering putting a few more pickups in that "quiet" cave section. On the other hand, of the demos and videos I've watched, nobody has yet *actually* run out. So maybe there's just the right amount.
• In your "Language of Doom Maps" video, you said that the best way to introduce players to new mechanics is to grab them by the head and scream "LOOK AT THIS!" I was guilty of not paying that line enough respect when it came to showing the player how to open the three "void gates" which give you the keys to activate the secret exit (and also I could have done a better job of signposting the secret exit area -- there's a building shaped like a reverse "C" on the western side of the map). Each gate has two red skull switches. The current version puts them both immediately in front of the first gate (yellow), so the player can see that both nearby red skull switches are required to open the gate. Maybe I'll try to make the switches more distinctive.
• That same video is also why I don't have a single D1/DR linedef action on the map (and every door stays open). It's all done with overcomplicated switches that disappear as they are pressed. This is partly because I've always found Doom's door behaviour to be kind of awkward, and partly because I don't want players to wonder if they should be opening door directly. Easier if the answer is always "No. There's a switch."
• I agree, the ending does seem a bit anti-climactic. I'll meditate on this.
• The random political commentary was wonderful and made my day.

 

Thanks for taking the time to make this video and post it. Your encouragement means a great deal to me. <3

Edited January 22, 2021 by LordEntr0py

[LordEntr0py]

6 minutes ago, Fluuschoen said:

For sure, bro! I'm not confident it will be adequate, but I'm gonna try it anyways.

Just spotted my typo. That should have said "If you would like to offer feedback, any format is wonderful."

[DrR0Ck]

Started the level, and like it so far, but still not getting any music.  I tried re-downloading but no change.

[Clippy]

9 minutes ago, DrR0Ck said:

Started the level, and like it so far, but still not getting any music.  I tried re-downloading but no change.

idmus25

[HAK3180]

43 minutes ago, DrR0Ck said:

Started the level, and like it so far, but still not getting any music.  I tried re-downloading but no change.

 

Because he has included a mapinfo, he needs to define the music. You're on GZDoom, I take it?

All he has to do is add "music D_e2m1" on the next line under where he has "map E2M1 'Command Center' "

 

Or you could do that on Slade. Otherwise, it should be fine in ports that don't read mapinfo.