Novis - Boom compatible map

[jdagenet]

Novis is a standard, medium sized hell level I designed in just under a month from scratch.

Compatibility
IWAD: Doom 2
Map: Map01
Tested with: Doom Retro and GZDoom
Difficulty Settings: UV only

Credits
Cowsha - Testing/feedback
Impboy - Testing/feedback
leodoom85 - Testing/feedback
Alfonzo - Music
Mechadon - Sky texture

-DOWNLOAD-

More screenshots
 

Spoiler

 

[Ru5tK1ng]

Nice map. Arg would be proud.

[Arbys550]

Pretty fun map! I liked the layout the most. Only thing I didn't agree with was the archvile towards the very end that pops out with no cover whatsoever.

[Aurelius]

Fun map for sure, I really liked how the ammo scattered around felt a bit too much at first, but after you realize you visit all those areas again they seemed very nicely balanced overall. I usually do a first try without saves and got surprised by that last AV (did take them down though), so I'm debating whether or not I should upload the video of it or not :P Might play it later at some point. 

 

I also agree with Arbys's sentiment that the AV at the end is debatable at best. Below are some musings about that:

 

Spoiler

I think it's a cool gotcha moment when the door doesn't open and you get no indication the AV is released until they attack you or you turn to look at them, but for the same reason you might be totally ill equipped to deal with him at that point. My first reaction was to look for cover, so I didn't even try to shoot it initially (which ultimately was my undoing). And since your only realistic weapon is the rocket launcher, you have to distance yourself from the AV before engaging properly. So to me, the encounter has most to do with how well the AV behaves. You can easily dispatch a single AV without cover if you immediately attack, but it's not a large window of opportunity.

 

For a map that is otherwise quite moderate in difficulty, this feels somewhat out of place. You could either add some more obvious cover, or alternatively if you want to keep it really tight, also add another AV and an SSG with that cover. I think it retains the "oh fuck" feel, but makes it more manageable on a first attempt. Not that maps need to be completable on first attempt, but here it would mesh better with the rest of the map, imo.

 

Overall it was still very well done, and apart from that AV I really have no complaints. As with the previous map of yours, looking forward to play some more :)

[Biodegradable]

Fun map with spicy combat. It's nicely made with solid texture work and cool progression. I really enjoyed the challenge and I ALMOST scored a deathless run, but then you decided to be a bastard at the end lmao. Anyways, great work, man.

 

 

[Veinen]

Neat map! Great layout (and use of the layout) and I really like the tidy visual style as well. Combat is fun too, with rocket boxes everywhere you can pretty freely spam the RL against all the mid-tiers and it doesn't matter at all that you don't hand out the SSG. Not exactly a very tough map overall but an entertaining one nonetheless. I had a very different experience with the last AV compared to others as I had a spare soulsphere at the end so I didn't even bother trying to hide, then he died in three rockets anyway before zapping me...

 

FDA in the attchment, played with glboom+ 2.5.1.3 on UV.

 

FDA_jdagnovls.zip

[Sectorslayer]

Great and difficult map! The detailing is exactly right. They layout neat and compact. Yet I got the feeling of actually playing a much bigger map. Probably due to the use of teleporters. I like that the hiding places become deadly traps later when all those AVs resurrecting everybody I put down before. The only thing that was missing was the SSG. And maybe some secrets where one can find extra ammunition. Unfortunately the video recording crashed. Anyway, the only thing to see would be me failing and retrying. :-P Good WAD!

[Kor]

Looks good, plays well.  I enjoyed it.

[Jacek Bourne]

It looks interesting. I may play it later.

[Decay]

Looks appealing with good use of stock textures, I'll give this a go tonight on stream.

[jdagenet]

Thanks for the comments so far. I’m waiting to hear more weigh in on that certain Archvile so I can kind of gather the majority response and go from there.

I’m glad people seem to enjoy the map though and the layout too. I think the one thing that’ll make or break ANY map is the layout so in my opinion it’s very important to focus on this aspect almost all the time and prioritize it.

[Decay]

Overall it was a pretty fun map, I enjoyed it. I think there could be some more objects like torches placed around for a bit more atmosphere, and connecting some switches to doors (ie blue torch beside a switch activating a door with blue torches beside it). The elevator switch could probably just have the blue key attached to it rather than being able to lower the lift and seeing a blue door just for another switch - kind of streamline things. I'm not entirely sure how I feel about some of the doors being manual activation particularly after having to press switches for all the preceding doors. I don't think doing a return trip through teleports is worthwhile for the CG personally, but I never felt that the map was unfair at any point and had a good difficulty curve, though perhaps some parts felt a little grindy with just the shotgun. The switch lowering the wooden posts wasn't super obvious to me, I'm wondering if it would be more obvious if the gates were closer to where the player enters, or just highlighting the switch a bit more.

[megamankiller69420]

cool map, man :)