Dumping Ground: a small map made of actual trash.

[Alfwin]

Since I'm currently suffering from creative block with my Incursion project, I decided to make a small, standalone map.  All I knew going into this was that I wanted it to be short and simple, with an average playtime under 10 minutes.  When I started working on this, I happened to be listening to the song Krieger by Null Positiv (a metal song about pollution; it's good shit), and that gave me the idea to set the map in an industrial rubbish dump.  I'm pretty happy with the result.  It's definitely easier than Incursion.  I could imagine this being map 2 or 3 of a megawad (and it might just become that, eventually).  There's nothing fancy here - I probably spent nearly as much time making the sky texture as I did the map itself - but I figured I may as well publish it.

 

Map Info:

- Replaces MAP01 of DOOM II: Hell on Earth.

- Tested with Chocolate Doom.  Should work with just about any source port you like.

- All difficulties are supported.  This map is supposed to be on the easier side (comparable to the Starport levels of DOOM II).

- Estimated play time: 5-7 minutes.

 

Download:

DUMPGRND_v1.03.7z

 

Screenshots:

Edited October 7, 2021 by Orcsbreath
Removed an erroneously-placed linedef action 11 from the line just past the red door, and changed its texture. Also added wooden supports to the chaingunner's cave for a cleaner texture transition.

[Biodegradable]

A little on the short side but thematically sound. I'd love to see you expand a bit on this one and make it longer, exploring what a toxic waste dump or junkyard would look like corrupted by Hell's influence. But what's here is cute and fun.

 

 

[Alfwin]

@Biodegradable Yeah like I said, I specifically wanted to make a short map.  I probably won't make any significant expansion to this level itself; I'm mostly happy with it as is, but I quite enjoyed working with this visual style so there's a good chance I'll do an entirely new junkyard-themed level at some point in the future.

[Biodegradable]

32 minutes ago, Orcsbreath said:

I'll do an entirely new junkyard-themed level at some point in the future.

 

I'd like that :^)

[evil_scientist]

Nice bleak atmosphere and cool soundtrack!

 

Junkyard is a great theme, a lot of additional elements are possible if you do a bigger one in the future. Waste incinerator, trash compactor, collapsing mound of garbage, slippery banana peels...

[Clippy]

It's so good I played it twice - I like your epic pressure maps but this is a nice breather map - good stuff

 

 

 

[Alfwin]

@Clippy "breather map" is pretty much exactly what I was going for - both for the player and for me as the level designer.  The "classic" feel you mentioned was probably intentional, if only subconsciously.  When I was making that first room, I did think, "this is turning out a bit Slough of Despair" at one point.  Hopefully less annoying, though.

Taking out that revenant with a barrel-punch was epic.  Almost enough to make up for the pain I felt watching you, on both attempts, walk within millimetres of a secret but not get quite close enough to see it, lol.

[The_SloVinator]

The atmosphere is excellent & the challenge is very good.

I enjoyed it.

[Azuris]

Here is my noobier Take on the Map on HMP.
Played on Choclate Doom.

Had to fight two additional Enemies aside, one of my Cats and my Girlfriend, my left arm stayed with an Handicap (sleeping Cat haha) for the Rest ot the Map.

If this is one of your easier Maps, it has my Taste of beeing not to easy but not hard.

That was an Hide and Seek Game with one of those Revenants, i have no Idea where it was hiding.

I am a bit sad that i did not find the Rocket Launcher^^

 

oom

[Alfwin]

@Azuris It's good to see HMP playthroughs; justifies the time I spent setting up the different difficulties. Hm, so far I've not seen anyone find either of the secrets.  Makes me wonder if they're too well hidden.  You got a bit closer to finding the rocket launcher than @Clippy did, though.

[Azuris]

I've seen that most are fosusing on Ultra Violance, so i'm glad to help out on HMP hehehe

Will play it tomorrow again to find that little Rocket Vomiter.

 

Edit: Forgott to rate your Map:

Its good!

Its easier to spot out Things that feel bad, but here the trickiest Thing was to get the Shotgun first.

But i wouldn't change it.

 

I also like all those Barrel Placements, they truly help and are fun!

Edited February 7, 2021 by Azuris

[BoxY]

Really fun map, it obviously wasn't doing anything objectively groundbreaking but it was good-looking, well-balanced and atmospheric. In fact I was a little disappointed at the end because I was just starting to get drawn in and it was already over. The only thing I wish it had was proper custom music because the even though it was well picked the stock E1 music wasn't doing it justice.

 

FDA: fda-bx-dg.lmp I managed to die :)

casual uv-max in 3:33 because it was fun: dg-333.lmp

 

I agree that the rocket launcher was too well hidden, even if you managed to accidentally trip the linedef in that spot, it would be very hard to figure out what it did because I'm pretty sure you can't see the wall lower from the cliff and the damaging floor discourages poking around for secrets in that area. I ended up opening the map in slade to figure it out.

[SleepyVelvet]

here's an fda.  decent map!  thanks.

 

noisy_DumpingGround.zip

[Alfwin]

Ok, I've decided to move the rocket launcher secret.  It was far too easy to miss.  Now, hopefully, it should be reasonable to find if you're paying attention.

(To anyone who did find it in the previous version: you still open it the same way as before).

[LVENdead]

No video this time, but wanted to chime in and say this one was pretty fun. I think I'll just reiterate what others have said - nothing groundbreaking, but still interesting and engaging all the same. I found it pretty easy (beat it on UV without saving or dying), but with enough of a pulse that I had to stay on my toes.

 

 I actually like the setting quite a bit, with the skybox doing great work at making this feel like a sunset industrial environment. In some ways it kind of reminded me of a level from the game Dusk - giving you quite a few monsters to kill in a relatively small amount of real estate, an identifiable progression that has exploration possibilities, and a minimalist approach to creating a convincing "realistic" location. Despite there being no actual trash texture in the stock Doom 2 set, I can see exactly what you were going for.

 

Great for a quick "get myself out of this funk" exercise, very good for a map in general.

 

EDIT: Also to quickly note, I found the RL secret you reveal when walking across that one line def. Helped that I cleared out the area and could hear it when I was exploring.

Edited February 8, 2021 by LVENdead

[Alfwin]

@LVENdead The skybox was a lot of fun to make (I cobbled it together out of fragments of images I found by searching the word "industrial") so I'm glad you like it.  Earlier versions had a much more vibrant orange sky, but it made the rest of the level look too dark by contrast.  Dusk was a definite influence on this. Trying to make a "realistic" (or at least recognizable) setting with the stock Doom 2 textures was pretty fun.  That's part of the reason I like making very vanilla maps; it forces me to be more creative.

 

Did you find the RL secret in the old or the new version?  The old one was far enough away that, depending on your audio settings, you almost couldn't hear it even without any distractions; the new one should be much more audible (although hopefully not too obvious).

[Arrowhead]

Well, that was a lot of fun! Nice and short, exactly how I like my maps. I liked how as you elevated in the level, more and more of the industrial skyline was visible - gave a good sense of scale, despite being a smaller map. The environment of this map was very believable, (as a real place) and the doom2 textures were used quite creatively. I liked the barrel placement especially - lots of well placed explosions. I beat the map in 7:32, and I enjoyed every moment of it!

[Walter confetti]

Pretty neat small map, really enjoyable!

Here's a FDA, recorded with Crispy Doom 5.10.0:

dumpinground-fda-walt.zip

[galileo31dos01]

Bumping because I played this recently and found an exit line next to the RK door, which looked like an oversight. Cute map though.

[Pixel Fiend]

I like this a lot. Very nice atmosphere, short and sweet, Chocolate Doom compatible, speedrun-friendly. I'm trying a speedrun. What are your best times?

[Alfwin]

12 hours ago, galileo31dos01 said:

Bumping because I played this recently and found an exit line next to the RK door, which looked like an oversight. Cute map though.

Good catch!  No idea how that happened, but that's definitely not supposed to be the exit!  I've updated the file; it should be fixed now.

 

9 hours ago, game said:

I like this a lot. Very nice atmosphere, short and sweet, Chocolate Doom compatible, speedrun-friendly. I'm trying a speedrun. What are your best times?

Thank you for the kind words!  Speedrunning isn't exactly my strong suit, but my fastest any% UV run was 1:09.  Do let me know if you can beat that - or better yet, share a demo.  I'd love to see it!