RAY MOHAWK 2 - Development Thread

[Peccatum Mihzamiz]

I wanted to give you all a quick update on my thusfar unnamed MAP18. The past two weeks have seen slow but steady progress whilst I had to prioritize other projects. I'm happy that the areas of the map that still need work are now almost less in number than the finished ones.

 

I am sometimes a bit hampered in mapping for this project by having difficulty figuring out the balance. I feel that there is a serious 'throwing everything but the kitchen sink at the player' danger for a map slot this late in the wad with these weapons. I'm trying very hard to avoid that pitfall :). 

 

Stay classy, Doomers!

[Pixel Fiend]

Can you estimate when this summer wad will be finished?

[NeedHealth]

[Doomkid]

6 hours ago, game said:

Can you estimate when this summer wad will be finished?

I may miss the middle of summer for the northern hemisphere - I'm thinking two months roughly between now and release.

 

2 hours ago, NeedHealth said:

Good progress!

[NeedHealth]

 

e - haha. spot the error.

Edited June 21, 2021 by NeedHealth

[Egg Boy]

Sorry for taking so long, I ended up scrapping 2 separate versions of the map. This one's a short, fun romp on an island.

The music is "Bubbly Washing Machine" from Super monkey Ball 2

chocolate island.zip

Edited June 24, 2021 by Egg Boy
renamed the wad after realizing this is not a peninsula :p

[NeedHealth]

[DFF]

Made some small updates to Mall Rats

• Added 2 switches to the yellow key arena to slow down key grab
• added missing textures
• changed the door into the yellow key area to prevent any post yellow key cheese

[MikeyScoots]

Id like to take Map05 please

[nrofl]

Ill take a map if any are open

[Doomkid]

On 6/25/2021 at 9:11 AM, Egg Boy said:

Sorry for taking so long, I ended up scrapping 2 separate versions of the map. This one's a short, fun romp on an island.

The music is "Bubbly Washing Machine" from Super monkey Ball 2

chocolate island.zip

12 hours ago, DFF said:

Made some small updates to Mall Rats

Thank you both very much! Gonna be posting the latest beta which implements both of these maps shortly, as well as the Arch-Vile attack fix found by Scypek.

 

7 hours ago, MikeyScoots said:

Id like to take Map05 please

Sure MikeyScoots, glad you have you on board!

 

5 hours ago, nue said:

Ill take a map if any are open

There aren't any slots left - but we have had a few people drop out of the project, so if you do want to make something, worst case scenario we end up with 21 maps and can implement yours as a secret map. If other words, if you feel like putting the effort to make a map in, your effort will not go to waste!

 

 

EDIT: Just posting this as a reminder, but map slots are likely to change prior to release anyway - they're gonna be (kinda-sorta) arranged by difficulty. Just a little something to keep in mind.

Edited June 29, 2021 by Doomkid

[Bobby :D]

Oh shit i forgot i was a thing

 

*quickly rips off a tarnsman layout*

 

is good?

[Doomkid]

lol, yeah, I had to drop the people who didn't get back to me 2 weeks after the deadline off the roster, sorry about that - if you do want to make a map, as long as most of the project participants approve of it, it could maybe be snuck in as a super secret map following after Nue's hypothetical map.

 

If you're still interested and that sounds acceptable, have at it by all means!

[Bobby :D]

oh nice, well add that to the list of Bobby guest maps (and other Bobby related hypotheticals) that Egg Boy has in his back pocket at all times!

[Doomkid]

Alrighty, here's the latest beta - As far as I'm aware, these are the latest versions of all the submissions:

 

https://doomshack.org/uploads/mohawk2i.zip

 

I'm very, very pleased with the state of things. Every submission so far is a joy to play!

Here's the current maplist, just as a reminder:

 

Map01 by me (submitted)
Map02 by Voltcom (submitted)
Map03 by Cheesewheel (submitted)
Map04 by Moustachio (submitted)
Map05 by MikeyScoots
Map06 by Walter Confetti (submitted)
Map07 by UberGewei

Map08 by SilverMiner (submitted)
Map09 by Egg Boy (submitted)
Map10 by NeedHealth
Map11 by Gokuma (submitted)
Map12 by me (submitted)
Map13 by Noiser

Map14 by sluggard (submitted)
Map15 by IggySqiggles
Map16 by RonnieJamesDiner & rd (submitted)
Map17 by Aurelius & rd (submitted)
Map18 by Peccatum Mihzamiz (submitted)
Map19 by DFF (submitted)
Map20d by Scypek2 (submitted)

 

All notes and feedback are of course welcomed with open arms.

[Noiser]

Mapping progress:





I finished my map already. I'm just improving balance at this point.

Edited June 29, 2021 by Noiser

[xX_Lol6_Xx]

I don't know if it's just me, or if the demo is like that, but I think that the demo file desyncs, you die at the shotgunner area, here, look at the progress bar

It happens in Chocolate Doom and DSDA-Doom

Edited June 29, 2021 by Lol 6

[Aurelius]

1 hour ago, Lol 6 said:

I don't know if it's just me, or if the demo is like that, but I think that the demo file desyncs

 

My guess is that Doomkid won't record new demos for each beta version, so it's to be expected that they desync like that until the very final release.

[Noiser]

Here it is, I think it's good for now:

Title: Pier Pressure
Map slot: 15
Music track: " Rave Dancetune" from Cool Spot (MIDI version by Tobias Norlén, extended mix by me)
Difficulty settings: Yes
Tested with: Chocolate Doom
Known bugs: A few drawseg HOMs that I will fix later. Sprite flickering may occur, but doesn't detract from gameplay. I tested this map on Chocolate to ensure that it will not compromise the fun.
 

[[ATTENTION]]
I HIGHLY recommend playing this map on a faithful vanilla port like Crispy, Chocolate or DSDA (cl2) otherwise you may lose some neat visual effects. ;-)

(Map will not work as intended on GZDoom or Doom retro)
yo yo yo.



More screenshots:

Spoiler

I would appreciate any kind of feedback. I tested this map alone, which is why it took so long to post. Now that's finished I think I can contribute playing and testing the other maps as well, so If you want me to test your stuff let me know.

Edited August 18, 2021 by Noiser

[Moustachio]

@Noiser Those screenshots look so good. I think you really nailed the visuals in this map!

[Doomkid]

Oh wow, that looks freaking awesome, Noiser! I’m gonna give that a blast through once I get home, looking forward to it.

 

I’ve made some decent progress on map12, I’d say it’s 80% done now and Peccatum Mihzamiz showed me some great progress as well, so think a new beta build will be warranted within the day!

[Noiser]

Thanks a lot! I had a lot of fun making this

[Azure_Horror]

On 7/2/2021 at 6:18 PM, Noiser said:

Here it is, I think it's good for now:

Title: Pier Pressure
Map slot: 15

 

.........

 

I would appreciate any kind of feedback. I tested this map alone, which is why it took so long to post. Now that's finished I think I can contribute playing and testing the other maps as well, so If you want me to test your stuff let me know.

 

How do I win the blur-cyberdemon fight? It feels very RNG-dependent.

[SilverMiner]

1 hour ago, Azure_Horror said:

How do I win the blur-cyberdemon fight? It feels very RNG-dependent.

I used either blaster or auto-shotgun, dodged its attacks and never got in a trouble with this guy

[Noiser]

6 hours ago, Azure_Horror said:

How do I win the blur-cyberdemon fight? It feels very RNG-dependent.

[Don't open the spoiler ahead if you didn't played yet - it literally spoils the fight]
 

Spoiler

Adding to what SilverMiner said, the easiest way to avoid the balls is by moving backwards (don't strafe unless there's one coming in front of you). Then keep shooting with the Blaster to keep one of the cybers stunned. Once you kill the first, you can get closer and stun the second without much hassle. When you get out of bullets, keep shooting with the Auto-SSG.

 

Edited July 4, 2021 by Noiser

[Azure_Horror]

 

5 hours ago, SilverMiner said:

I used either blaster or auto-shotgun, dodged its attacks and never got in a trouble with this guy

 

I manged to beat this fight, but I feel that I just got lucky with AI roulette. On my succesful attempt, the cybers fired rarely. But when the two cybers on UV decide to shoot at the same time, they can create borderline bullet-hell patterns. (Yeah, I am bad at bullet hells, I know.)

On top of that, the ammo usage feels inconsistent in this fight. On my lucky attempt I finished first cyber with blaster only and I had about 90 bullets to spare. On one of the more unfortunate tries I spent 225 bullets and 8 SSG shots (16 shells), and didn't manage to kill even the first cyber (despite focusing fire at him).

 

On 7/2/2021 at 6:18 PM, Noiser said:

Title: Pier Pressure
Map slot: 15

 

Feedback (played with GLBoom 2.5.1.4 -complevel 2, difficulty 4):

1) The final fight is my favourite fight of Ray Mohawk 2 (at least so far). It allows for multiple approaches and many different weapon choices, and uses unusual monster combinations. Mancubi horde as the main threat? Multiple spider-mastermind snipers? Treacherous incidental teleprorters? Revenants used as relatively low hp fodder for BFG? Complex layout? Yes, yes, yes, and yes, and again yes! The fight is simply amazing!

2) I feel that the first area needs more HP, given the fact that it is only the first dish of the three course meal. The huge amount of crossfire coupled with low hp total encourages overly cautious gameplay, and the beginning area becomes somewhat grindy. I think that the simplest solution would be to replace a medkit on the blue key boat with a supercharge. Other than that, the starting area is very good. I especially liked the cutscene with boat explosion.

3) I don't know how to leave the blue key pool without archvile jumps. Am I blind, or this is a bug?

Spoiler

The blue switch activated, the monsters slain. What now?

4) There is a softlock at the BFG sequence. You can jump out of the building before the door closes.

Spoiler

Cowardly skeletons! Let me in!

 

[Noiser]

2 hours ago, Azure_Horror said:

3) I don't know how to leave the blue key pool without archvile jumps. Am I blind, or this is a bug?

Oh shit that was a huge mistake of mine, due to a last minute change. You should be able to go down the lava pit (will fix it right now, just a minute)

[EDIT]
Alright, fixed both issues:  https://www.dropbox.com/s/f3nuemqevjoqx66/MAP15.rar?dl=1

Thanks a lot @Azure_Horror, I'm glad you liked the fights! I think a Soulsphere on the boat would be too much, but I will take your view into account and see how to improve it. I did the first area a bit harder with continuous runs in mind (and because I feel hot starts are less frustrating on saveless runs).

Edited July 4, 2021 by Noiser

[Azure_Horror]

49 minutes ago, Noiser said:

... I think a Soulsphere on the boat would be too much, but I will take your view into account and see how to improve it. I did the first area a bit hard with continuous runs in mind (and because I feel hot starts are less frustrating on saveless runs).

 

If replacing a medkit with a soulsphere would be too much, you can cut one aditional medkit somewhere else. Given the monsters present, 50 hp won't ruin anything.

 

Soulsphere would frontload some hp at the start of the first area. On pistol start this will allow for more aggressive play, which would reduce paranoid running in circles. (Running around is the safest play currently,  due to all the skeleton and spider turrets. But running around wastes time...)

And on continous... The previous map is the @sluggard's map. It has Super Small Extreme BFG-Cyberdemon Room of Total Destruction. There is a good chance that continuous mode players will come to map15 without much health, and maybe even without plasma. (The BFG-Cyberdemon Room of Map14 is so intense, that wasting plasma on failed BFG shots should be expected for the first time players.) Given such map14, frontloading HP at the first area of map15 is ok for continuous playthroughs.

 

[Doomkid]

Finally finished Map 12 - Beautiful Clean Coal. A city-turned-coalmine that's been destroyed by the constant heat! If only those bastards at the UAC had cared about the destruction their over-reliance on Nukage™ was causing.. Welp, now the mutants and hellspawn have taken over and it's time to clean up what's left!

 

Download: https://doomshack.org/uploads/mohawk2j.zip

 

Incidentally, this comes with a new beta, version 2j. As usual, I've included the latest version of every submission, to my knowledge. So glad with the progress made, only a few gaps left to fill in the map lineup! Here's some screenshots of my map, because why not:

 

 

 

 

 

 

Looking forward to any feedback or any suggestions!

[ignatiOS]

Sadly, I won't have access to my map for around 3-5 days, however it's nearly finished :D