SSTLVL1B.WAD - new life for an ancient map

[Noyemi K]

Hey all, I saw a video of clippy playing a random old wad (SSTLEVL1.WAD) and decided to do a take on it as part of learning more about how to make doom maps. This is my second map, and it's a bit larger than my first. I will say I was getting pretty tired of looking at it by the time I finished with it today, but I still welcome feedback since I'm doing my best with encounter design and I want to carry any lessons learned over to more serious projects.

 

It doesn't use any portals or non-vanilla assets aside from the music I made for it, but it does use coloured sector lighting to slightly spice up the overwhelming brownness of vanilla.

 

Technical:

• No. of Maps: 1
• Required IWAD: Doom 2 or Freedoom Phase 2
• Map Format: UDMF
• Ports Tested: GZDoom 4.5.0 (only works in GZDoom as far as I know)
• Crouching/Jumping: Not disabled, but they are not recommended (and might actually break progression in a certain spot, use at your own risk)
• Mouselook: Strongly Recommended
• Recommended Graphics settings: Truecolor software renderer + dynamic lights. But they should work fine in any renderer!
• Difficulty: Designed only for UV, but has some slight differences for sub-UV

 

Secret feature, do NOT click if you want to avoid being spoiled:

Spoiler

classic Telefraggable Cyberdemon

 

The Goods:

SSTLVL1B.WAD

 

Credits:

• Me (music and mapping)
• My boyfriend (iterative playtesting)

Screenshots:
 

Spoiler

 

 

 

Edited April 5, 2021 by Noyemi K

[Doritos420]

Well done map, played on UV, 100% kills and secrets.

 

Fun level I was worried I wouldn't be able to kill the cyberdemon but was able to find the telefrag secret with some poking around.

 

Pros - Liked hunting for the different weapons. Liked the surprise elevator.

Like the big arena fight with all the exploding barrels.

Love how the map loops back on itself!

Fantastic lighting and texture work.

Lots of personality, I especially liked the lone chaingunner chilling in the nicely detailed room.

 

Cons:

I did notice one of the secret doors doesn't have lower unpegged track textures.

With the palette change to the map (how do you do that anyway?) that the water in the level appears more greenish, so some players may think it's toxic waste and try to avoid it.

The big cyberdemon arena lets you backtrack and funnel all the bad guys into the opening stairway leading there. It's fine it you want the player to be able to do that, but a better way may be to lock the player in there or have them jump down so they have to deal with the challenge head on.

Wish there was some more variety with how you get to the secrets, they are all placed behind a hidden wall (maybe some foreshadowing, like you see the rocket launcher in an inaccessible area to give you a clue).

 

Closing Thoughts - Well done map, makes me feel ashamed that I'm still working on my 1st medium sized map. Looking forward to more stuff.

 

 

 

[Doritos420]

Oh I forgot to talk about the music too. Very well done, keep it up!

[Biodegradable]

Fun and challening. It's a good time for sure.

 

 

[Martin Howe]

Generally good; gave me 15 minutes fun; @Doritos420 above says pretty much everything I'd have said so I won't repeat it all here (though I differ on the "funnel all the bad guys into the opening stairway" thing, but it's personal taste: I much prefer clever tactical ways of killing demons and dislike head on challenges).

 

Since you're warming up here, I'm guessing you have always played Doom 2 and not Doom 1 as you mention the "secret" with no preamble or talk of it being a "homage"; sadly you're not the first person to put a telefragged cyberdemon in a WAD; it was back in 1994, by some guy called John Romero -- you may have heard of them :) :)

[Noyemi K]

I knew about the cyberdemon telefrag in E4 and never claimed to have invented the concept of blowing him up for a secret 😉. It's also in the Ancient Aliens megawad, where I'm pretty sure I'm the only human on the planet that played the first map, missed the secret entirely, and then punched him to death.

[ElPadrecitoCholo]

SSTLVL1B.WAD 

 

Ultra-Violence || Zandronum || Vanilla

 

Status:

Deaths → 0

Saves → none

 

 

This map was very entertaining, and with an interesting challenge, to tell the truth, the way everything was structured seemed very interesting, starting in an area with closed spaces, until then ending in a large area with an open space, with certain buildings that had a little basic architecture, but that was very necessary to avoid the rockets of that Cyberdemon, also, what I liked was that water color that you had placed on this map, clearly taken from your previous work, miss, but that in the same way it looked perfect here. Regarding the fighting was where this map stood out, the challenge of avoiding dying at the hands of the Cyberdemon missiles in areas that there is almost no cover is a serious problem, therefore, speed here counts a lot, and the Plasma Gun also It was a very smart choice for the final matches that were on the map to progress. In conclusion, it was an excellent map, I had a great time here, and I will be excited to see your next work that you bring here, great work on this Wad, miss.

[Juka]

Very interesting map, the palette and sector lighting coupled with the music and outdoor areas set a very "afternoony" mood I particularly enjoyed a lot, I could play an entire mapset of this!

The encounters were mostly simple and the structure feels classic (with some very nice detailing like missing stone tiles and water puddles), the map is pretty doable without finding the secrets even if you want to 100% it (there are many enemies just begging to be punched by that early berserk). My only suggestion is to maybe place one or two hell knights in the backrow of the cyberdemon area, so you can't just drag them to the stairs and kill them while safe from the cyber, that would put some more emphasis on dodging the missiles, but it's by no means a requirement, the map is fun as it is!

Looking forward for more, especially if your next maps are as moody as this was

[Noyemi K]

I'm glad you folks enjoyed the map! I'm still feeling out design and trying to find out where I stand on the continuum between "full classic" and "full contemporary" but it's too early to say, so I'll follow the feedback and keep mapping in the meantime.