AORTA - A simple doom II Level (and my first wad ever)

[eoomu]

So, i made this level for Doom II, I did it to put into practice everything I have learned so far about mapping and modding, being my first map, it's not all that great, it's a custom level that uses Doom II stock textures, it has some problems here and there (ES: misaligned textures and an absurd bug that brings the secret counter to 15, when in reality it should only be 3 of them...) but other than that, I had a lot of fun learning with UDB and SLADE, and of course creating this map! but now let's move on to the specific stuff:

 

Name: (AORTA.wad) (file here: AORTA.rar)

Map Format: UDMF

Ports Tested: only GZDoom

IWAD: Doom II

Map(s): MAP01

Music: Neon Glitter - Dial-Up For Murder

Gameplay: Single play

Difficulty Settings: HMP is a lot more forgiving, UV is like Sunlust's last levels in certain points

Multiplayer Placement: No

Build Time: 1 day for the barebone layout of the map, two weeks for placing the other things (i was learning how to map in the meantime)

Textures: Doom II Stock Textures

Requirements: all is permitted!

 

Ok, that's it, have fun and please let me know how can i improve at this, i accept any kind of criticism, let me know guys and have fun!

 

(you will have a little surprise towards the end, kekeke)

Edited May 31, 2021 by eoomu
i forgot to post the wad, lmao

[Biodegradable]

You got a link to the WAD, fam?

[Clippy]

Wow this is a hard map I can't even figure out how to get the file to start it 🥴 very interesting beginning for sure we'll have to see how this map plays out Jeff

[Horus]

Just by looking at the screenshots (since we don’t have the link yet), the map would look much better if the ceiling is either replaced by a sky, or if the map is intended to be an indoor cave, then the use of ceiling height and texture variation.

[eoomu]

1 hour ago, Biodegradable said:

You got a link to the WAD, fam?

 

26 minutes ago, Clippy said:

Wow this is a hard map I can't even figure out how to get the file to start it 🥴 very interesting beginning for sure we'll have to see how this map plays out Jeff

 

20 minutes ago, Horus said:

Just by looking at the screenshots (since we don’t have the link yet), the map would look much better if the ceiling is either replaced by a sky, or if the map is intended to be an indoor cave, then the use of ceiling height and texture variation.

 

 

Uops! i forgot to post the wad itself, lmao, sorry guys, here it is: 

AORTA.rar

[CblBOPOTKA]

Not seeing any UDMF feature on screens) Try it later

[Kurogachii]

1 hour ago, Clippy said:

Wow this is a hard map I can't even figure out how to get the file to start it 🥴 very interesting beginning for sure we'll have to see how this map plays out Jeff

Jokes aside the map IS hard holy cow the beginning is cool but there's a point where you have a arachnotron, two archviles, barons, hell knights, all in one medium sized place lol

[smeghammer]

37 minutes ago, Kurogachii said:

Jokes aside the map IS hard holy cow the beginning is cool but there's a point where you have a arachnotron, two archviles, barons, hell knights, all in one medium sized place lol

 

Yeah - got my arse kicked there. I'll try again later. Here is the playthrough to where I died...

 

 

Spoiler

[YT found a copyrighted song 'Neon Glitter, Dial-up for Murder' - I used the YT 'remove copyrighted' song option]

 

[Biodegradable]

 

[eoomu]

44 minutes ago, Biodegradable said:

 

*laughs like a maniac when he sees him fight 4 cyberdemon together*

 

no ok, jokes aside:

thank you very much for playing my map, during your playthrough I noticed a couple of errors that can ruin the map, such as monsters that are alerted even if they are in another sector, or the two archviles that block your way to the portal (there must have been only one). obviously the biggest mistake was the lack of ammunition in the last arena, this unfortunately prevents you from killing the cyberdemons, I have to fix a couple of things, but thank you very much for trying my map!

 

protip: next time pay attention to the false wall just before the first teleport and the waterfall that you find in front of the portal that leads to the last arena ;)

[uber]

hey, here's an almost-fda on uv, gzdoom 4.6.0 (had to interrupt my actual first recording after grabbing the super shotgun):
aorta.rar
 

Spoiler

went for a sort of "speed" run, and didn't have much trouble overall. i did get zapped once by the second surprise archvile after the arachnotron room but that was my own dumb mistake (screen shake included). i think the main problem is that a lot, if not all of the monsters up until that room can just be ignored safely since you won't need to return to where they are anyway, except maybe for the cacos - there's nothing really stopping you from rushing practically all the way to the exit since there's ample space to move around and dodge.

the final fight was pretty fun but not very difficult (i assume the map is intended to be played without infinitely tall monsters which makes the cacos less of a problem) - i had plenty of spare ammo from not killing the hell nobles earlier, so i barely managed to kill the cyberdemons with the super shotgun, which was a bit tedious. speaking of which, they aren't much of a threat once you herd them all to the center of the arena and can safely circlestrafe your way to victory.

i'd say it's a pretty solid first map though! design-wise it could use some more ceiling variation, and gameplay-wise i'd suggest restricting the player's ability to run past everything with ease - well placed "sniper" enemies can flush you in or out of cover, narrow corridors can be blocked by heavy enemies, etc. and don't be afraid to throw in some meaner traps when you get heavy weaponry - i was fully expecting the walls to lower and reveal a big fight at the bfg area, especially with all the corpses lying around!

keep on mapping, i'm looking forward to more stuff coming from you :)

 

[Degree23]

I played this in Zandronum on UV, seemed to work well enough though there was HOM on the central pillar at the end.

 

Generally this seemed to play alright. Heavy use of the teleporting monsters, which could maybe have used some variety. The choice of textures meant that it wasn't necessarily very obvious what each switch was doing. Some level of consistency is useful as it allows players to have some idea of what to expect. The timings of the lifts were also odd. You had to wait quite a while for them to rise, which initially I missed as I didn't think anything was happening and went to look at other parts of the map before realising I couldn't go anywhere, so I went back to the lift switch. You've already seen that the final room doesn't have even close to enough ammo to deal with the number of Cyberdemons you have. Also, given that the rest of the map isn't overly difficult in most instances (a couple of tough fights with AVs aside), it's a bit of a jump to need to take on that many at the end of the level. A fight of that difficulty often works better if there's a level of build up to it. It possibly wouldn't be out of place at the end of an episode, where you've had to slog your way through a lot of fighting, but at the end of a single map it's a little bit disproportionate. Given that you pick up an SSG on the way through the map, I'm not sure why there was a second one in the final area. A box of Shells would be better if you wanted more ammo for that there.

 

However, all that said, for a first map it's really not bad at all. There's definitely potential here. Nothing seemed to break, and aside from the final area the ammo balance was pretty good. These are just my opinions of course, and I hope you get some feedback from more people.

[eoomu]

16 hours ago, uber said:

hey, here's an almost-fda on uv, gzdoom 4.6.0 (had to interrupt my actual first recording after grabbing the super shotgun):
aorta.rar
 

  Hide contents

went for a sort of "speed" run, and didn't have much trouble overall. i did get zapped once by the second surprise archvile after the arachnotron room but that was my own dumb mistake (screen shake included). i think the main problem is that a lot, if not all of the monsters up until that room can just be ignored safely since you won't need to return to where they are anyway, except maybe for the cacos - there's nothing really stopping you from rushing practically all the way to the exit since there's ample space to move around and dodge.

the final fight was pretty fun but not very difficult (i assume the map is intended to be played without infinitely tall monsters which makes the cacos less of a problem) - i had plenty of spare ammo from not killing the hell nobles earlier, so i barely managed to kill the cyberdemons with the super shotgun, which was a bit tedious. speaking of which, they aren't much of a threat once you herd them all to the center of the arena and can safely circlestrafe your way to victory.

i'd say it's a pretty solid first map though! design-wise it could use some more ceiling variation, and gameplay-wise i'd suggest restricting the player's ability to run past everything with ease - well placed "sniper" enemies can flush you in or out of cover, narrow corridors can be blocked by heavy enemies, etc. and don't be afraid to throw in some meaner traps when you get heavy weaponry - i was fully expecting the walls to lower and reveal a big fight at the bfg area, especially with all the corpses lying around!

keep on mapping, i'm looking forward to more stuff coming from you :)

 

 

14 hours ago, Degree23 said:

I played this in Zandronum on UV, seemed to work well enough though there was HOM on the central pillar at the end.

 

Generally this seemed to play alright. Heavy use of the teleporting monsters, which could maybe have used some variety. The choice of textures meant that it wasn't necessarily very obvious what each switch was doing. Some level of consistency is useful as it allows players to have some idea of what to expect. The timings of the lifts were also odd. You had to wait quite a while for them to rise, which initially I missed as I didn't think anything was happening and went to look at other parts of the map before realising I couldn't go anywhere, so I went back to the lift switch. You've already seen that the final room doesn't have even close to enough ammo to deal with the number of Cyberdemons you have. Also, given that the rest of the map isn't overly difficult in most instances (a couple of tough fights with AVs aside), it's a bit of a jump to need to take on that many at the end of the level. A fight of that difficulty often works better if there's a level of build up to it. It possibly wouldn't be out of place at the end of an episode, where you've had to slog your way through a lot of fighting, but at the end of a single map it's a little bit disproportionate. Given that you pick up an SSG on the way through the map, I'm not sure why there was a second one in the final area. A box of Shells would be better if you wanted more ammo for that there.

 

However, all that said, for a first map it's really not bad at all. There's definitely potential here. Nothing seemed to break, and aside from the final area the ammo balance was pretty good. These are just my opinions of course, and I hope you get some feedback from more people.

Thank you so much guys <3

[KevvyLava]

I had a lot of fun playing this. I love simple levels because they feel like 90's Doom to me. I liked the modern format of the traps (teleporting monsters). Was a little hard for me, but a couple of resurrections here and there and I blazed through it.

[Clippy]

 

[eoomu]

4 hours ago, Clippy said:

 

Omg there are a lot of Script Errors lmao, why does that Cyberdemon spawns out of nowhere? 

 

Btw thank you so much for playing it, i really appreciate it! 

 

(And if we use the "right" secret count, you missed 2 secrets out of 4 XD)