[Boom-Compatible] [Final] Ruins of Sathryn - My first standalone single-level!

[Endless]

 

Download --- » Ruins of Sathryn

 

Info:

• 1 single level for DOOM 2
• Skill level balanced
• *HMP and below should offer a fair challenge
• *UV can get very rough and bullet-hell esque
• Co-op settings loosely implemented
• Boom-Compatible
• Tested on PrBoom+, DOOM Retro, LZDoom and GZDoom.
• No jumping
• Freelook allowed
• 30 minutes of avg. playtime for first timers.
• IMPORTANT: You need CC4-TEX to be loaded along the WAD.

 

This is my first independently launched level. Much bigger than the previous one and compatible with Boom-ports. This is a fairly open map with a desert and ruins theme, offering plenty of chaotic combat and a fairly simple progression.

 

I hope you like it!

 

Story:

The ancient city of Sathryn was once the last bastion against demonic invasions during the Lost Era. One by one, all the cities fell, the kings were devoured and civilization was on the brink of extinction. The small groups of surviving humans struggled day by day to survive against the increasingly terrible incursions. Amidst the chaos and death, a single bastion remained standing. Sathryn, the Blessed City. For decades it was able to withstand the assaults of demons, holding off sieges that lasted for years and repelling entire legions thanks to its extreme fortifications and blessed walls. Many wondered how the city still stood, some conspired that perhaps black spells protected the so-called Blessed City. It may never be known, for Sathryn fell in a single night. A night of eternal blackness, of burning anger and disastrous slaughter. No one knows what happened. Perhaps there was betrayal. Maybe a demon possessed one of their leaders. Maybe they simply ran out of luck. It does not matter. Now Sathryn is just a monument to temporality, destruction and helplessness. In the middle of the Eternal Desert lies a pit filled with the graves of the last men of the Lost Era. Sathryn remembers... And so does the Man of Doom.

 

Credits:

@Gothic for the Jaguar Style status bar.

@Remilia Scarlet for helping me and tutoring me.

 

Screenshots:

 

If you find a bug, please report it!

 

Also, consider joining the Wadazine for more news regarding my mapping adventures and of course, the Wadazine CP's: https://discord.gg/Q2RKn4J

Check them out our latest effort: WMC02: Thy Flesh Vored

Edited February 5, 2022 by Endless
Updated version.

[Teo Slayer]

Since I like exploring ancient ruins, I will be grateful to play it

 

[Endless]

3 minutes ago, Teo Slayer said:

Since I like exploring ancient ruins, I will be grateful to play it

 

I hope you enjoy it! Exploration is rewarded.

[TheNoob_Gamer]

Interesting to see you making more maps!

[Nine Inch Heels]

Gave it a shot and had a so-so experience...

 

The climbing around is nice as an idea, but with so many small steps in places you get very bumpy or choppy behaviour when moving at full speed, especially when it's linedefs at an angle that isn't 90° or some multiple of that. There is also something to be said about making some these steps more visible than they are, in particular in the starting area where it's a lot of brown in brown, possibly even with some added brown...

 

I ran around aimlessly for a couple minutes because of a lift that might have been just another pillar, and didn't seem "useable" at first. I don't see a good reason as to why that pillar isn't operated via some switch, just to denote that there is something to "use"...

 

Never ever will I care to pick up these annoyingly placed single rockets:

 

This paper thin wall doesn't look very nice:

 

It is possible to get stuck at the fight with the first invuln where the cacos and PEs spawn in, because the crumbled wall piece to the right side (looking from where you approach that area from) can be walked over...

 

The other bigger fight with the viles and the nobles is a bit of a mess, because it's not that unlikely to get cornered there in such a way that damage can't be avoided... There also seems to be some teleport or such nearby, and if that happens to get used voluntarily or involuntarily there's a chance for players to get nuked by the viles, because the teledest puts players into a place without any cover between the teledest and that plateau... The blue armour nearby is as useless as it could possibly be, because picking it up early can be a death warrant, and that amount of armour isn't required for the small follow up arena or the viles behind the exit door either, because everything past that "vile plateau" is free anyway, unless both mancs shoot at the player right away, while the teleport fog still keeps them stuck for a moment, in which case you better hope you have some HP to spare...

 

Overall: on my first and second playthrough, when I took those screenshots, I ran around and played somewhat carelessly, so I ended up losing a bunch of health, and the soulsphere a few moments prior to that vile plateau wasn't enough to tide me over... second playthrough I pulled each and every tooth on the map, which means meticulously killing revs and hitscanners, which turned out to be effective, but it also wasn't the most fun I ever had, despite going into the vile plateau with 170% health that time around, I still almost died right there, because two of the viles focused on me before I could even get a shot off, and the rest had me cornered behind the pillars pretty quickly, at which point all that I could see as a solution was to hose them with plasma and hoping to get them into a pain state before it was too late.. I'm not one to bitch about "mandatory damage", but if there is anything like a reliable method to that plateau that doesn't involve a secret which trivialises the whole encounter, then I fail to see it...

 

I touched on item placement already, but I guess I'll point it out again; placing items in nooks and crannies like the rockets above, or stimpacks and small shell pickups is extremely annoying, and it doesn't have much to do with exploration, nor is it conducive to gameplay in any way... If it was something I actually needed, or if there was some interesting nuance to picking for example these rockets up, I would be more willing to just say nothing about this, but stuff like this feels like bending over backwards for a nickel nobody really needs when there are boxes of rockets and even a berserk conveniently placed in the open... I'll happily climb a pyramid to get an early rocket launcher while I need to be mindful of incoming projectiles or lost souls, but these singular low value items in small and entirely uncontested corners are a no for me, so I'll never not bring that up...

[Doom_Dude]

I got to test it on UV this morning. Interesting map especially as a 2nd map with some fun battles.

 

Some of the thin walls that come to a point look really too paper thin IMHO.

 

The battle after the pit was hard as I was in there with 42 health after the first fight. So I had to run about to just run away with the key, which took more tries than I care to admit. ;)

 

It was fun for sure and I like the design of the buildings.

 

Some of the windows could use a upper and lower unpegged flag to align the textures.

 

I got stuck in this corner after falling off during the battle above the pillar lift. Maybe give the pillar a switch so it's more obvious that the pillar is a lift.

 

[Nine Inch Heels]

Hang on... There is more...

 

We have a floor spectre there to the left of the blade of the chainsaw, and it seems to be like this consistently...

 

 

I also don't understand the purpose of the placement of linedef 11173, 11174, and 11175... I get that they're supposed to unleash the cacos and PEs on some delay, to make sure those come in while the player is busy with the vile and his crew, but this also comes with the problem that, if players feel like tackling that fight later, the flyers might spawn anyway, while the player does something else, which kind of breaks the fight.... I understand the desire to refrain from making it a lock-in, but at least that wouldn't break the same way this trigger could. There has to be a better way to do this....

 

Also, checking the map in the editor.... Of course.... vile plateau is easy with the secret BFG, and the hidden invuln is probably meant for the small arena that comes right after...

 

EDIT: Yeah.... Got stuck in the very same corner as doom_dude

Edited June 28, 2021 by Nine Inch Heels

[Biodegradable]

Damn, that was a steep challenge. The Pain Elementals/Lost Souls were definitely the biggest issue I had with this map. They caused me more anguish than Revs usually do, my god lmao. Despite me bitching at times and the progression being slightly cryptic, this is a terrific map and I had a lot of fun, mate. I will admit that having to climb up tiny ledges all the time that you could easily fall off was a little trying sometimes, and much like Doom_Dude, I too fell into that corner well over a dozen times. But you know me, I'm a drama-llama sometimes and I tend to ham it up a bit for the video. Anyways, well done lad. :^)

 

 

Edited June 28, 2021 by Biodegradable

[Doom_Dude]

Wait... there's a BFG? I missed that somehow.... probably because I didn't get the red key and really didn't look for it after spotting the door for it.

[Nine Inch Heels]

5 minutes ago, Doom_Dude said:

Wait... there's a BFG? I missed that somehow.... probably because I didn't get the red key and really didn't look for it after spotting the door for it.

The red key for the BFG is pretty well hidden, and not really easily accessible, I've noticed... the angled walls make it a pretty iffy jump, and the key itself also isn't easy to spot in the first place... with the BFG, the second half of the map is essentially trivial, however, so it might be worth the sweat, especially if your sourceport of choice is a bit more forgiving when it comes to brushing along angled walls...

 

EDIT: I think it may be possible to grab it from the other side, but the point with the walls, and the corresponding elastic collisions still stands...

 

EDIT2: hang on... it is possible to grab the key from either side, which means the trigger for the cacos can be skipped, so that needs a backup

Edited June 28, 2021 by Nine Inch Heels

[Silhouette 03]

Hey, does anyone know how to lower the bars of the teleport pad in the yellow key arena. Can't seem to find a switch or anything. Thank you in advance

Edited June 28, 2021 by Silent Wolf
Puncuation

[Nine Inch Heels]

caco_trigger_skip.7z

 

there we go, key grabbed from "the wrong" side, caco spawn trigger skipped entirely...

[Doom_Dude]

9 minutes ago, Silent Wolf said:

Hey, does anyone know how to lower the bars of the teleport pad in the yellow key arena. Can't seem to find a switch or anything. Thank you in advance

 

They should lower when you walk over the key itself. [edit] on testing myself you can get the key without triggering the bars.

 

[edit] ah yes, NiH, I did find the red key on replay. :)

Edited June 28, 2021 by Doom_Dude

[Silhouette 03]

1 hour ago, Doom_Dude said:

They should lower when you walk over the key itself.

 

I must've grabbed it from the wrong end. Thank you Doom_dude

Edited June 28, 2021 by Silent Wolf

[Phobus]

Well, I've played through it. Got 5/6 secrets, all three keys, 100% kills and 99% items, finishing with a play time of 23:06 (with another 10-15 minutes of dying time). Played in GZDoom on UV, with mouselook (I can't imagine how you wouldn't, given the scale and likelihood of falling off of bigger fights) and no small amount of saves.

 

I like that it's an open map and I like that you've made an effort to make it look like something. The spikes in combat are noticeable and reasonably intense, and the background pressure early on is pretty tough as well. I think you could've stood to mix some more colour in there (make the water blue or grey, rather than brown, or make some of the rocks grey, for example), but my main gripe is around the incredibly fussy micro-detailing. Some of it looks pretty good, but for the most part it hampers movement for little visual gain, and often makes small sections of textures repeat across an area way more than it otherwise would (those thin pillars around the building with the blue skull in area good example of the textures repeating). I wasn't a fan of that Revenant popping up right at the start either, as the chainsaw and spectres pulled me in a different direction and got me killed early on.

 

All told, it's not bad. It shows promise, too, and is a fair bit better than my early efforts. Very rough around the edges, though. I think for your next map, try to focus on making it smoother and more fun to run around in. Look at maps by skillsaw, or DBP maps by the likes of Big Ol' Billy and glenzinho - they do detailing and good looks, like you're very visibly aiming for, but keep the playing space a bit more clear and easy to navigate, which would be the most obvious improvement. I think you'll get there with the visuals with practice and experience, but clearing a space for movement is a conscious effort.

 

Monster usage seems fine and varied, which is welcome from a relative beginner, and weapon progression was there. Health felt tight, overall, but there was plenty of ammo and armour, so you can afford to keep health low to add to the difficulty here. Good job! Go make another one* ;)

 

*when you're ready... If you want :)

Edited June 28, 2021 by Phobus

[Silhouette 03]

Congratulations on your first solo release, Endless! Played on UV and tested with GZDoom 4.6.0

 

Gameplay

I really like that you encourage player exploration through having secrets littered in corners around the map. The combat is mostly really refined, bar the Cyberdemon and Arch-vile encounters( the latter of which I found to be frustrating), and the arenas freely allow player movement.

 

I do have issue with the progression sometimes being cryptic, and sometimes I'd stumble onto something through pure chance. An example would be the blue skull key gate. I originally thought the blue skull key was for a different door or gate. Having a texture like doorblu2( or a CC4 variant) would better signpost the door as being linked to the blue skull key.

 

The BFG secret is something I'd also like to talk about. The fight with the two cybers in the yellow key area demand the use of the BFG, or at least more cells for the plasma rifle, since I nearly used all of my rockets, cells and shells to kill them. I'd highly recommend taking another look at that area, since Nine Inch Heels posted a bugfix for that area as well.

 

Layout

I do like the open nature of the layout, and as I mentioned before, that there is usually more than enough space to move. However, it isn't always clear what you can climb in the opening area. and this lead to a bit of confusion on my end. Maybe signposting with supplies would be a good idea. Can't really give a good suggestion here. 

 

Texturing and detailing 

I do like the "ruined city overrun by demons" atmosphere that you have here, and the texturing is also done well( Besides one area).

 

Bugs

 Some enemies were stuck in the ground, or became stuck in the ground( This happened multiple times, and NIH had the same issue):https://imgur.com/a/8oEXbGF

Misaligned texture:https://imgur.com/a/8NTZLsr

I think you may have shown a linedef trigger on the automap:https://imgur.com/a/PSNRyAf

 

Conclusion

A really solid start, despite a few flaws here and there. Keep at it.

I really hope you found this useful, an that my feedback actually helps. If I made a mistake somewhere or my facts are false, please feel free to point them out. I'd like to improve as a playtester, so any feedback is invaluable.

 

 

Edited June 28, 2021 by Silent Wolf

[Endless]

Thankts a lot for all the input everyone!

 

I have caught up with some of the problems and this version has a few improvements:

 

- The red key is now more accessible and can no longer be reached from the opposite side.
- Slight changes in item positioning.
- Fixed the softlock in the ruin with walls.
- Impassable linedef on the wall near the pyramid leading to the portal to prevent players from falling.
- Less brown.
- Blue bars are a little more visible.
- Some walls are now thicker.
- Several texture changes.

- Pinkies moved a bit, shouldn't ge stuck now. Do mind, some of the early enemies are not suppossed to follow you around the entire lower area.

- Less PE @Biodegradable :P

 

• Ruins of Sathryn

Edited July 1, 2021 by Endless

[RDETalus]

Is jumping supposed to be allowed? If not, I got stuck in this corner

[LadyMistDragon]

I was not expecting another map from you so soon!

[Endless]

56 minutes ago, RDETalus said:

Is jumping supposed to be allowed? If not, I got stuck in this corner

Nope, freelook is tho!

[EffinghamHuffnagel]

I'm a sucker for 'ruins' maps anyway, but this was a lot of fun. Great decorations and small touches. But whenever there are large height variations, unforeseen things can be found. So:

Spoiler

Using GZDoom; went through it twice.

 

- In the NW corner building an AV could throw you behind the N wall. Possible softlock.

 

- Got to tag 11 teleport with an SR from the Manc platform to the SW elevation, then to the shorter ASHWALL4 column in front by the waterfall, which got me past the Blue Key bars without the key, skipping half the map.

 

- Tag 15 switch to lower Yellow Key can be used from ground level. It's within 64 units of elevation edge, so Cybers never appear.

 

- One of the tag 16 teleport linedefs is facing the wrong way. Confused me for a second. I landed on the face and didn't know what to do.

 

- Your CVILV0 should be named CWILV00. Maximum standard screen width is 320 units. Your CWILV is 612. Meant for 1920 widescreen?

 

Well done. I would be very happy to see more maps like this.

 

I know there are tech base CPs, and most megawads have one Pharaoh/Misri Halek type map, but is there a full CP megawad of ruins/ancient civs/Heretic/Hexen-style for single-player? 

[Endless]

2 hours ago, EffinghamHuffnagel said:

I'm a sucker for 'ruins' maps anyway, but this was a lot of fun. Great decorations and small touches. But whenever there are large height variations, unforeseen things can be found. So:

  Hide contents

Using GZDoom; went through it twice.

 

- In the NW corner building an AV could throw you behind the N wall. Possible softlock.

 

- Got to tag 11 teleport with an SR from the Manc platform to the SW elevation, then to the shorter ASHWALL4 column in front by the waterfall, which got me past the Blue Key bars without the key, skipping half the map.

 

- Tag 15 switch to lower Yellow Key can be used from ground level. It's within 64 units of elevation edge, so Cybers never appear.

 

- One of the tag 16 teleport linedefs is facing the wrong way. Confused me for a second. I landed on the face and didn't know what to do.

 

- Your CVILV0 should be named CWILV00. Maximum standard screen width is 320 units. Your CWILV is 612. Meant for 1920 widescreen?

 

Well done. I would be very happy to see more maps like this.

 

I know there are tech base CPs, and most megawads have one Pharaoh/Misri Halek type map, but is there a full CP megawad of ruins/ancient civs/Heretic/Hexen-style for single-player? 

Thanks a lot for the reports! Glad to hear you had fun with it.

 

As for WADs themed around ruins, I can thing of Epic II (Egyptian/desert ruins) and Avactor (Mayan/Aztec ruins in tropical landscapes).

[EffinghamHuffnagel]

Yeah, love Epic II, and I was enjoying Avactor until I got to MAP09. 3-1/2 hours of actual game time and I still had two sections of bridge to raise. Gave up. Never did finish it. Burned me out for months. Well, maybe it's time to try again. Thanks.

[GarrettChan]

The last fight feels a bit overkill to have 2 Cybers. Also that switch can be pressed on the lower level and skip the Cyberdemons.

 

It's possible to use a pillar to RJ in order to completely skip this fight, but sadly you still need to Yellow Keycard though.

[Decay]

UV Pacifist run in 0:37

 

Feedback: You really should use a variety of different flats/textures for the rocks. Making the geometry really tight for climbing is kind of pointless and adds an artificial difficulty to the map. Hardest part for sure was dealing with the map geometry and getting stuck/softlocked in all sorts of places. You could say it's useful for monsters boxing you in but honestly it's more frustrating than fun in some instances.

 

A better pacifist runner than me could probably make a better time and could certainly get through using the invuln, I just took a shortcut. Using the invuln I managed to get as far as lowering the blue key. If you don't get boxed in, the rest of the map is trivial.

 

 

 

Edited July 1, 2021 by Decay

[Endless]

10 minutes ago, Decay said:

UV Pacifist run in 0:37

 

Feedback: You really should use a variety of different flats/textures for the rocks. Making the geometry really tight for climbing is kind of pointless and adds an artificial difficulty to the map. Hardest part for sure was dealing with the map geometry and getting stuck/softlocked in all sorts of places. You could say it's useful for monsters boxing you in but honestly it's more frustrating than fun in some instances.

 

A better pacifist runner than me could probably make a better time and could certainly get through using the invuln, I just took a shortcut. Using the invuln I managed to get as far as lowering the blue key. If you don't get boxed in, the rest of the map is trivial.

 

 

 

Hah! That made me chuckle. But yeah, working on some fixes for it :P

[Decay]

A lot of mappers fall victim to the interesting/beautiful cliff exploits :P Point in case right here.

[Endless]

Updated version with bugfixes!

- Can't no longer press the yellow key switch from ground level.

- Some various height changes.

 

• Ruins of Sathryn RC2

Hopefully this version doesn't break anything else or features major bugs, or has more HOMs. Boom is a fickle thing.

Edited July 1, 2021 by Endless

[LadyMistDragon]

Just finished this map....your best so far!

[princetontiger]

Thx /idgames

 

An incredible Saturday morning jam!

 

PS: I had to use jump.. there's a few areas I just couldn't figure out without jumping.

Edited February 19, 2022 by princetontiger