Zone 400 released! (beyond the absolute final bugfix version September 26)

[SilverMiner]

11 minutes ago, pcorf said:

Which is the best nodebuilder to prevent this? I can rebuild nodes in all maps and reupload at a later date.

Have you tried Zokum BSP?

[pcorf]

1 hour ago, SilverMiner said:

Have you tried Zokum BSP?

 

I don't have it. Never heard about it.

 

Project is in limbo all of a sudden. Will try and figure out something. Another choice is to rebuild using the old fashioned BSP from the 1990's.

Edited July 21, 2021 by pcorf

[P41R47]

3 hours ago, princetontiger said:

pcfor, you're a legend mate! this wad is absolutely insane!

 

ps- what's a linedef? i'm a player, not a maker, and all I know is that a linedef refers to the potential size of the map

Not the size, but the shape.

Every map is made of lines, vertices and sectors and other things. Well, linedefs are those lines that draw the shape of the map.

 

So basically, what @pcorf made with this mapset is use exaclty 400 lines to draw the maps, or even less.
Depending on the map, they are usually above 1000 lines, and even 1000 lines are kinda small maps, so imagine one map from BTSX, i probably has around 10000 lines or more.

Using a limited number of elements to make the maps usually trigger creativity on new ways.
Thats why there are a lot of projects that consist of maps made with some limitation: 1000 lines, 10 sectors, 3 hours of time limit to design it completelly, maps restricted to a limited space like a square shape of 2048x2048 pixel units.

Here is an in depth article about linedefs:
https://doomwiki.org/wiki/Linedef

[Caleb13]

1 hour ago, pcorf said:

Which is the best nodebuilder to prevent this? I can rebuild nodes in all maps and reupload at a later date.

 

Reportedly ZDBSP which you can get here:

 

https://zdoom.org/downloads#zdbsp

 

I have no idea if or how well it is backwards compatible with less advanced ports, though. But it does really work, I've used it several times when I played WADs that were plagued by this problem. It's even part of GZdoom code, you can force node rebuild when a map loads with "gennodes" setting.

[ElmoCoveredInBlood]

Hyped to play!

[princetontiger]

Where is the secret in map 6?

[pcorf]

1 minute ago, princetontiger said:

Where is the secret in map 6?

 

Opposite where the red key is after blue key door. Baron of Hell is located there.

[princetontiger]

15 minutes ago, pcorf said:

 

Opposite where the red key is after blue key door. Baron of Hell is located there.

Hah, thank you! I'm glad I asked... nice goodie chest

Edited July 21, 2021 by princetontiger

[princetontiger]

I'm half way through, and I love the oldschool feel. It feels like oldschool finally being brought into the late 2010s/current 2020s. I'm not a huge fan of the custom textures people have created. I'm not griping, just not a fan. I love how Doom already handles and feels.

[pcorf]

I've updated Zone 400 for hopefully the final time.

 

CHANGES

• Nodes rebuilt in all 33 maps using BSP-W32. Enemies (hopefully) no longer fall through the floor. Tested in Zdoom, Prboom-Plus and Chocolate Doom. Checked problem areas and all seems good.
• A few minor cosmetic changes in MAP32, added a step in the water leading up to the revenants near yellow door in 2nd outdoor area.
• Fixed misaligned teleport in MAP33.

 

DOWNLOAD ZONE 400 (ZIPPED, BUGFIX VERSION JULY 24)

READ .TXT FILE

 

Glad to get this finally out of the way!

Edited July 23, 2021 by pcorf

[princetontiger]

Sa-weeet! Thank you!

[pcorf]

1 hour ago, princetontiger said:

Sa-weeet! Thank you!

 

Hopefully nothing else sneaks up behind my back or I may need to shoot myself with the BFG. I will never use Zennode again, it may stop small slimetrails in detailed maps but it is not ideal for all maps.

[BerserkerNoir]

Ahhh never dissapointed with your maps.
Hectic Action without being unfair, I am definely replaying it.
Not to mention the MIDI tracks, which are kickass.
 

Edited July 24, 2021 by BerserkerNoir

[pcorf]

1 hour ago, BerserkerNoir said:

Ahhh never disappointed with your maps.
Hectic Action without being unfair, I am definitely replaying it.
Not to mention the MIDI tracks, which are kickass.
 

 

That was the aim. July 24 version uploaded to idgames (hopefully available soon on idgames) and I'm pretty happy with it. It was a lot of fun creating this.

 

As the author my personal favorite map with 400 linedefs was MAP09. I think that one came out the best because of the way it utilizes the 3D structure of the id Tech 1 engine. It is a clockwise, anti-clockwise progression in a looping pattern with excellent ambushes and areas constantly open up. The transparent MODWALL1 texture was created exclusively for this map, it just looks so much better than MIDSPACE. It also plays superbly in deathmatch. It may be one of my best ever maps out of the hundreds I have created in my lifetime.

 

The map I was most disappointed with (not that disappointed) was probably MAP14. I felt a bit out of it when creating the map, was pretty linear. At least it has one of the better MIDI tracks in the pack. Still it was better than most maps in Zone 300. I ran out of linedefs and if I wanted to create something more interconnected I needed more spare linedefs. It was tough creating some of these maps and required a lot of thinking, trust me.

 

The Icon of Sin battle in MAP30 needed to be intense, you need to be fully focused as you run around the map collecting keys and fighting for your survival. I did not want to create a typical boring IOS map.

 

With MAP32 I wanted to create something totally unique. So the theme was a swampy prehistoric jungle long before the dinosaurs during the Devonian Period, an era when the first land animals existed on earth. I also wanted to use a different sky for this map so I created a plain blue texture for the sky because in Vanilla you cannot use sky transfers like in MBF/Boom.

 

Interesting fact. Partially invisibility spheres are located in every 8 maps (MAP08, 16, 24 and 32). But on nearly all maps in deathmatch mode.

Edited July 24, 2021 by pcorf

[paranoidroid]

Congratulations pcorf!

 

I have recorded the OST with Arachno SoundFont and put it on YouTube:

 

Enjoy! ;)

[pcorf]

8 hours ago, paranoidroid said:

Congratulations pcorf!

 

I have recorded the OST with Arachno SoundFont and put it on YouTube:

 

Enjoy! ;)

 

Nice one. I'm in the process of mastering a SC-55 soundfont version of the OST which will be for sale on my Bandcamp page and also uploaded to Youtube. I wonder if I can squeeze it onto a 90 minute cassette tape as well for personal pleasure.

[NightFright]

Just finished the whole thing and gotta say, it may be your best project yet. The format and idea of the Zone series (I think you can already call it like that, even though there are just two entries so far) is very appealing. Map size is just about perfect for me, about 10mins playtime per level, with few but important secrets, classic design and quite managable combat situations. Music is great, too, like always, but that's the advantage if you are a mapping composer, I guess.

 

I dunno how much further you can push this concept before maps become too large and therefore "common", but I guess a Zone 500 should still make sense, especially since it would be a trilogy, then.

 

Anyway, outstanding work. Again!

Edited July 27, 2021 by NightFright

[Dubbag]

FUCK YES!!!

[pcorf]

6 hours ago, NightFright said:

Just finished the whole thing and gotta say, it may be your best project yet. The format and idea of the Zone series (I think you can already call it like that, even though there are just two entries so far) is very appealing. Map size is just about perfect for me, about 10mins playtime per level, with few but important secrets, classic design and quite managable combat situations. Music is great, too, like always, but that's the advantage if you are a mapping composer, I guess.

 

I dunno how much further you can push this concept before maps become too large and therefore "common", but I guess a Zone 500 should still make sense, especially since it would be a trilogy, then.

 

Anyway, outstanding work. Again!

 

Yes I think it is my best project and I am certainly most proud about it for sure. Hope you downloaded the latest July 24 version that fixes the nodebuild issues.

 

No plans for a 500 linedef project right now. I have another project to finish off. It is about 85% complete and then after that I'll decide what I'll create next. Maybe something for Doom's 30th anniversary.

Edited July 27, 2021 by pcorf

[NightFright]

Indeed, I got the updated version, but only after being half-way through the original release. I warped to MAP16 with the new version loaded to avoid any potential issues.

[pcorf]

33 minutes ago, NightFright said:

Indeed, I got the updated version, but only after being half-way through the original release. I warped to MAP16 with the new version loaded to avoid any potential issues.

 

MAP16 is one of my personal favorites, a cold town full of intense battles.

[Degree23]

This was great fun to play through and really well designed.

 

The only thing that bugged me was the randomly teleporting enemies. I lost count of the amount of times something appeared right in my face with no warning, or how often something had teleported away from a BFG shot. Honestly by the 15th time this was happening, it had long since lost its appeal.

[NightFright]

The enemies teleporting annoyed me at first as well, but then I wondered what gameplay would be like without it. These small maps need some kind of spice, and if you can keep monsters cornered in their tight niches where they often come from, they can be fininshed off too easily. I am not a fan of this measure in general, but here it might have its reasons.

[Keyboard_Doomer]

Hello there,

 

we're going to play maps 16-30 on Thursday Night Survival today. Session starts in an hour and you can expect the session to be fairly active for 4+ hours.

 

Not sure if you'd consider it worth another update but we did find a couple of stuck monsters in coop last week and I'll report any other issues we might find tomorrow.

[pcorf]

27 minutes ago, Keyboard_Doomer said:

Hello there,

 

we're going to play maps 16-30 on Thursday Night Survival today. Session starts in an hour and you can expect the session to be fairly active for 4+ hours.

 

Not sure if you'd consider it worth another update but we did find a couple of stuck monsters in coop last week and I'll report any other issues we might find tomorrow.

 

No more updates. I rebuilt all the nodes and released the final version July 24. I have not tested in coop, it is designed for SP, the coop and DM starts are in. OST to be released on Bandcamp and Youtube next Thursday.

[pcorf]

2 hours ago, NightFright said:

The enemies teleporting annoyed me at first as well, but then I wondered what gameplay would be like without it. These small maps need some kind of spice, and if you can keep monsters cornered in their tight niches where they often come from, they can be fininshed off too easily. I am not a fan of this measure in general, but here it might have its reasons.

 

Since I was so limited to a certain amount of linedefs (400) I could not create any extra ambushes (unless I deleted areas) hence the teleporting monsters in many of the maps, especially the more open area maps to keep you on your toes. Yes it can be frustrating. Some teleports are teleport once 125, others are repetitive 126. A lot of players found my past maps very easy so this time round I wanted to up the challenge.

[NightFright]

In the end, it was OK for me. I finished it in HMP in a matter of 4.5h. At some point you are actually expecting the bastards to teleport anyway, so you are automatically trying to have all angles covered in case of new encounters. That's just how this megawad rolls. 

[Blackmore1014]

Thank you very much. Honestly in last time I so tired from huge megawads with large levels... Just want something simple, which make me calm. And I like such simple and not long levels. I try it very soon with Brutal Doom: Black Edition and record walkthrough on YouTube.

Edited August 2, 2021 by Blackmore1014

[slayer's]

Once again a good megawad I had finished zone 300 and now here is a new megawad which we can say a continuation I made a video on it with the eternal doomer mod really I love it! :)

[Sena]

Great WAD, but I have one suggestion: tone down the lost souls on map 29

pls