Netherworld - A MegaWAD with 17 maps, boss level plus 2 secret levels

[NaMcOJR]

Hello again,

 

The original text has been edited in order to reflect the final release of this MEGAWAD.

 

WHAT IS IT:

=======

 

- A 17-level plus 2 secrets plus Boss level WAD for DOOM2. Playable only in GZDOOM.

- Three difficulty levels: I'm too young to die is one, then Not too rough and hurt me plenty are a bit harder and the same, then Ultra-Violence plus nightmare.

- All levels are pistol starts and have been built with this in mind.

- There are new monsters. I didn't go all-in with those as it would surely ruin the experience, but you can see them here and there occasionally as i think it adds a bit to the atmosphere and gameplay.

- The pistol and chaingun fire much quicker. I found the original fire rate too slow, so i speeded them up a bit.

- The agathodemons had some of their powers removed as i thought they were a bit too powerful for what i wanted to do with them.

- The lost souls had their health cut down to 50% to actually turn them into something i would enjoy having in my maps.

 

WHY:

===

 

Well, mostly because i love DOOM and i really couldn't find a set of maps i would REALLY enjoy playing, so "i did it my way". This is what you will find in Netherworld,

a set of maps which i made the way i like to play DOOM - Very hard and cryptic, featuring some real locations or parts of it (levels 3, 8, 13 for instance) and also allowing me

to have a bit of fun while building them by telling a story to the world. Hopefully many more people will enjoy and play these.

 

Netherworld is also my very first attempt at building a MegaWAD for DOOMII - Hell on Earth. I have always enjoyed Ultimate DOOM the most, but recently, and very inspired by a certain YouTube channel, my interest on DOOMII has outgrown the original by quite a margin. Being a software developer and really enjoying what i do, i decided to start creating my own levels and ideas and so Netherworld has come to life, featuring these said 17 levels, a boss level and 2 secret levels.

 

I stopped at MAP17 because i ran out of ideas there and i wasn’t going to build more levels “just because”. Development is now considered DONE unless some really nasty

lock or bug comes up.

 

I hope you enjoy it as much as i did putting it together and even playing it :)

 

DOWNLOAD IT HERE:

=============

 

https://mega.nz/folder/EY0GkQTT#woXj3s3fg4lFhaR86-BIsw - VERSION 1.8 FINAL VERSION

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Level 11 has been recently played by decino as i was lucky enough to have my map selected to be one of the viewer submissions. The bugs reflected in the playthrough have been addressed already. Many thanks to everyone involved (francist218, johnsuitepee, decino to name but a few) as all their input has made this WAD a lot better. I still had to keep some things my way, i hope you understand, as they were intended as such.

 

I am also playing through my own WAD with 100% kills, 100% secrets. Some of the levels are VERY hard and even knowing them by heart sometimes takes a while to go through them in just one go, but i'll try to have one up at least every 2 weeks since i don't have that much free time nowadays.

 

Here is the YouTube playlist which will be updated as possible.
Doom II - Netherworld Playthrough

 

Edited October 14, 2021 by NaMcOJR
Final version released - Link updated

[Murdoch]

30 minutes ago, NaMcOJR said:

i hope i'm not doing anything wrong here, so if i am feel free to let me know.

 

I am too tired to come up with a stupid sarcastic joke about this.

 

Dude, seriously, relax. You're fine. Doom maps of all kinds are welcome here, be they from legendary veterans, returning champions, or new authors such as yourself.

Edited March 3, 2021 by Murdoch

[Mr Masker]

57 minutes ago, Murdoch said:

 

I am too tired to come up with a stupid sarcastic joke about this.

 

Dude, seriously, relax. You're fine. Doom maps of all kinds are welcome here, be they from legendary veterans, returning champions, or new authors such as yourself.

yeah I've created maps here that most people thought were pretty bad and they're still welcomed here. Plus your's look much better than those maps

Edited March 3, 2021 by Mr Masker

[NaMcOJR]

Thanks guys, enjoy!

[NaMcOJR]

Updated to 1.2 with many changes and two new levels for episode 3, still a work-in-progress.

[NaMcOJR]

Updated to 1.3, this should be the "final" version for some time as i don't really have many more ideas right now.

[Omniplex]

Now this looks very interesting, AND FOR THE FIRST WAD! :D

 

I used to have GZDoom but it began to act strange since the time I had to remove the graphic card that had OpenGL, the graphic card port may have deteriorated and I cannot play with GZDoom anymore :(

Edited March 30, 2021 by Omniplex

[NaMcOJR]

Updated the WAD with some bugfixes and level corrections (also some difficulty adjustment). Added YouTube link with full playthrough of the WAD 100% kills, 100% secrets - This is a work in progress, currently levels 1 and 2 only, 3 soon to follow.

[Jacek Bourne]

You should state the format of the maps so we know what source ports its compatible with.

[Bryan T]

51 minutes ago, Jacek Bourne said:

You should state the format of the maps so we know what source ports its compatible with.

It uses decorate, so I'd say Zandronum at least.

[NaMcOJR]

I edited the topic, thanks guys. Requires GZDoom due to some features being used. It's nothing over the top as i really don't like to run away from vanilla, so i used it just enough to get some stuff done (bridges, some scripting etc).

[Bryan T]

This is pretty solid. The levels get better as they go. UV is very tough. I died on map04 at the bridge fight so I'm going to start over and try HMP.

 

I just finished the first episode. My only real criticism is with progression. There are some cryptic parts. I have the map set up to show activatable line defs. If not I don't think I could beat some of these levels. Even with the map being in cheat mode I still wasn't able to figure out the beginning of map05. I ran down each of the three corridors and wasn't able to figure out how to advance. Eventually I just jumped up to the platform in the middle corridor. Of all the maps in episode one the bridge fight on map04 was the hardest for me. There's also a lot of ammo in the levels.

 

Edited May 29, 2021 by Bryan T

[NaMcOJR]

On 5/29/2021 at 8:51 PM, Bryan T said:

(...) I still wasn't able to figure out the beginning of map05. I ran down each of the three corridors and wasn't able to figure out how to advance. (...)

 

Thanks for the feedback. I did want to keep things a bit cryptic, but not too much and this helps me understand how hard some things are. I'll have it reviewed.

 

You can raise the stairs in the middle corridor by using a switch on the left corridor, after beating the Archies in the "game" and entering the secret door that opens afterwards. When you exit again, there will be a new switch on the left which will raise the stairs. I will probably show the switch at the same time as the door opens, it doesn't make much sense hiding it this much.

 

Gameplay video will be out 15th Jun for this level.

Edited June 8, 2021 by NaMcOJR

[SickBoyOC]

I know I'm gonna catch heat for asking this question but I take it mouselook is disabled for this wad?

[Caleb13]

@SickBoyOC Yeah, it is, I think it's one of the reasons why so few people played it, even though it's nicely done. It irked me too, so I opened the WAD in Slade3 and edited the MAPINFO lump to remove the limitation.

[SickBoyOC]

@Caleb13 Not that I hold no mouselook against it, but I'm on map 2 and it has thrown me off a bit getting used to that again. I can tell the wad is nicely done and appears to be one of the better ones from what I have seen Decino say about it so I'll press on with it

[river_saint]

One big problem I'm having is the sky and anything near it starts cloning and doing the Droste effect in certain maps with open area looks. And in all maps the sky designs still have a line through it. I don't think this is intentional. Also, the little doomguy head stays at the top of the screen even if I adjust the HUD like normal. Could have something to do with the latest GZDoom update? I'm just wondering if anyone else has these issues? And what could be causing this? I thought it had something to do with my Smooth Doom add-on but it still does it upon an clean open.

 

Other than that I've been absolutely enjoying this wad. Love the updated monster sprites and level design. Very unique!

[LadyMistDragon]

No, Doomguy's head is supposed to be at the top of the screen, who knows why?