Dust Devil (GZDoom map) - Released (now on idGames DB)

[Captain Toenail]

Dust Devil is a single player mission for GZDoom spread across two intertwined maps.
                          
You have been sent to a UAC outpost on a desert world to recover a mysterious artefact. Expect heavy resistance and some new surprises.

 

Screenshots:

Spoiler

 

 

                          
Featuring new textures by Ukiro and music by Jimmy.
                          
Jumping and crouching are disabled.

 

There is an experimental optional checkpoint mode that adds several checkpoint items to the map. Simply pick them up to save the game.
                          
<IMPORTANT!> - This map uses Hardware mode only features (3D Models, flatsprites) and cannot be played in Software mode - ensure video mode is set to Hardware before loading map or it may crash.
                          
Estimated playtime: 60 minutes
                   

I recommend you use the latest version of GZDoom - v4.7.1

     

Enjoy! :-)

 

https://www.moddb.com/mods/dust-devil
https://www.doomworld.com/idgames/levels/doom2/Ports/d-f/dustdevil

Edited March 14, 2022 by Captain Toenail
Complete - new downloads added

[Astro X]

Looks neat, congrats on release!

[Dubium]

That looks nice. I rarely play wads with a desert theme

[ScrappyMcDoogerton]

I played this map yesterday and had a really great time. It's a wild adventure that everyone should experience. Excellent work.

[Pistoolkip]

Interesting map, great design and visuals, good balance of health and ammo, though I often felt like I had rockets to spare and too little shells and bullets.

I did die a bunch to blocking things though, in particular the lamps around the blue key area, and the final fight is also really tight with an annoying blocking lamp.

The checkpoint mode was a great addition.

The only real bug I found was the corpses of the flying chaingunners not dropping down sometimes.

Other than that, the map is really long, but that's down to taste more than anything.



 

[Captain Toenail]

@Pistoolkip Excellent feedback thanks.

 

I will reduce the width of those tall worklights and reposition or delete them. About the flying chaingunners I haven't experienced that one do you know if anything was triggering it to happen?

[kalensar]

Excellent GZD Map release. Grade A work all around. Those 3D crystal geodes were very pretty.

[Pistoolkip]

35 minutes ago, Captain Toenail said:

@Pistoolkip Excellent feedback thanks.

 

I will reduce the width of those tall worklights and reposition or delete them. About the flying chaingunners I haven't experienced that one do you know if anything was triggering it to happen?

 

No idea

I replayed the map today (and recorded it, video will be up in the next few days) but I did not encounter that bug again

 

I did notice it was mostly happening near fences and edges of cliffs (but much higher in the air)

[Philnemba]

Played through it on HMP with saves & its a really cool 2 map hub with a neat desert base temple theme 👍

 

Also...

 

Spoiler

Why did you add flying Chaingunners?!?! 😨🤣

 

Edited February 24, 2022 by Philnemba

[Captain Toenail]

Glad you enjoyed it @Philnemba . Was the difficulty ok on HMP? I mostly playtested it myself on UV.

 

Spoiler

 

About the flying chaingunners there's actually a small story about that. They were originally zombie speeders that would strafe the player from above. I still have the sprites and code if anyone wants it.

 

Spoiler

 

But I couldn't get them to move about in a convincing and fun manner using Decorate (I believe you could do it with zscript but I haven't explored that yet) and the outdoor areas weren't really large enough for a fast vehicle monster so that idea was dumped. I then thought what if I turn them into drones instead? That would be an interesting experiment using A_Warp and .obj models exported from map geometry. Then I stuck a zombie on top. Thus the flying chaingunner was born.

 

Spoiler

It's also the spiritual successor to the segway zombie :P

 

 

[Philnemba]

3 hours ago, Captain Toenail said:

Glad you enjoyed it @Philnemba . Was the difficulty ok on HMP? I mostly playtested it myself on UV.

 

I originally try to play it on UV but the the first few areas was a bit rough for my liking so I tone it down to HMP and difficulty was more tolerable but still a challenging experience  👌😎

[Pistoolkip]

This is a long map, so I did my best in dividing it up in good chunks. Here's part I:

 

 

[Pistoolkip]

part 2:
 

 

[Pistoolkip]

Part 3! This map was a blast and I'm glad I got to 100% kills 

 

 

[Captain Toenail]

Appreciate you taking the time to record these videos @Pistoolkip. Thank you for playing! I have picked up several things to fix for RC2 which should be available soon. 

Edited February 28, 2022 by Captain Toenail

[HellGhost]

Desert theme, huh?

Will have to play. Love your work and can't wait to get this mod runnin'

 

[papasrod]

Wew, enjoyed every second of it. Awesome wad!

Spoiler

Didn't expect that twist at the end 0-o

 

[Captain Toenail]

Alright here's RC2. See first post for file. I will give it a week or two and if there is no other issues to be fixed I will consider this the final release. Have fun! :-)

 

Changes:

• Spoiler

   

  • Some small level geometry tweaks to aid movement
  • Cyberbaron and boss cyberbaron attack behaviour and stats tweaked
  • Grenade guys now less aggressive on medium difficulty and below
  • Flying chaingunners can no longer be resurrected by Archviles (this was a bit glitchy)
  • Moved green laser secret soulsphere so it's optional
  • Removed some imps from misc cliffs
  • Replaced some chaingunners with lesser enemies
  • Added optional wad that enables jumping and crouching. Load this after the main wad.
  • Added misc player blocking lines to harden maps against most trivial jumping/rocket jumping exploits
  • Relocated worklights out of the way
  • Worklight hitboxes are now thinner and don't block projectiles
  • 3D plants hitbox now shorter and doesn't block projectiles
  • Seaweed should now longer protrude above the water
  • Updated the credits textfile
  • Added new logo
  • Probably some other small changes I forgot about

   

   

 

Edited March 1, 2022 by Captain Toenail

[Captain Toenail]

Dust Devil is now complete and has been uploaded to IdGames Database and ModDb.

Thank you all for playtesting.

Download:
https://www.moddb.com/mods/dust-devil
https://www.doomworld.com/idgames/levels/doom2/Ports/d-f/dustdevil

Edited March 14, 2022 by Captain Toenail

[princetontiger]

I really want to play this... I'm on the latest GZDoom. How do I do it?

[FEDEX]

Drag the .pk3 file like it were a .wad to the gzdoom exe

[princetontiger]

I did that, then I select the episode... then what do I do? I'm at MAP01, which is the default Doom 2 map.

[FEDEX]

The .pk3 contains 3 maps, so...

Open the console,

and type ...

map dust00   \

(or)                   |

map dust01    >  the level you want to play

(or)                   |

map dust02   /

 

[Captain Toenail]

1 hour ago, princetontiger said:

I did that, then I select the episode... then what do I do? I'm at MAP01, which is the default Doom 2 map.

 

@princetontiger Select new game and when you get to the episode select screen choose the second option in the list called "Dust Devil".

Or you can load map dust00 (intro text screen) or dust01 straight from the console as @FEDEX suggests.

[princetontiger]

16 hours ago, Captain Toenail said:

 

@princetontiger Select new game and when you get to the episode select screen choose the second option in the list called "Dust Devil".

Or you can load map dust00 (intro text screen) or dust01 straight from the console as @FEDEX suggests.

Finally. Thank you

 

These maps are incredible. Way to go!! The first one is a bit long... I had a blast.

Edited March 19, 2022 by princetontiger

[Renbot]

Saw this on /idgames. Played on UV. Very enjoyable, it's fun to see relatively more modern maps like these.

 

Spoiler

I wasn't a fan of the Augmented Cyberbarons while playing, because often trying to flank them would result in me walking on top of a grenade they had fired earlier that bounced back due to nearby walls and obstacles. I was so bad at this at some point I wondered if there was something else I had to do to kill them. Once I was sure that flanking was the way to go, I did eventually beat it.

In hindsight they were a fun boss fight. Presented a unique challenge where you had to dodge their grenades but also make sure they didn't bounce back.

 

Speaking of me being an idiot, for anyone reading this who hasn't played yet; don't use Smooth Doom or its derivatives. Smooth Doom will disable Dark Imps, and Delashin's Smooth Doom will do the same + will prevent you from getting the dagger artefact which is the objective of the game.

 

Edited March 20, 2022 by Artbor

[Captain Toenail]

@princetontiger

@Artbor

Thank you for playing glad you had fun :-)

 

Spoiler

About the Augmented Cyberbarons - yeah they are a tricky one. I wanted to try something new with those. Best tactic I find is to SSG them in the backside one at a time, or snipe them from above.

 

The map should be compatible with most mods in theory but this has not been tested. I think the main compatibility issue is potentially any mod that defines new keycards. Those could screw up some of the scripts.

[Gregor]

Sorry for the bump, but does anybody know how to get the megaarmor secret in map01? There is a megaarmor below this large steel grill overlooking the opening outside area. I can't for life of me figure out how it is collected. I opened the map in UDB to see if there any hidden triggers, but nothing seems to be connected with it. It counts as a secret but i can't see how you could reach it. There also aren't any walkthroughs on YT that include 100% secrets.

[Gregor]

Also, i don't get the checkpoint floppy disks to show up. I don't understand why.

Edited December 13, 2022 by Gregor

[Captain Toenail]

1 hour ago, Gregor said:

does anybody know how to get the megaarmor secret in map01?

 

Spoiler

There is a shootable switch nearby

 

1 hour ago, Gregor said:

i don't get the checkpoint floppy disks to show up

 

Choose UV Checkpoints difficulty setting when starting a new game to enable the checkpoints