My first map...in a while - Fawkin Elmate

[Voxelvoid]

Hello everyone!
I'm back with another quick map.

I hope you'll like it.

Single map, DOOM II's IWAD, built in UDMF format. 

Meant to be played using GZDoom or other engine that supports 3D floors.
Freelook, jump and crouch is allowed, but not needed.
I used music from Sigil map 2 that should hype you up a bit.
Have fun and let me know what you think!

 

 

PS I know it's probably not the prettiest stuff in the world, but it should not hurt your eyes too much

 

 

 

 

 

 

Fawkin Elmate 1.05.zip

Edited March 1, 2022 by Voxelvoid
Map update

[Large Cat]

Played through in GZDoom on UV. It was a real quick play, just taking over 10 minutes. That's some of the shortest stuff you'll see with over 300 monsters, so good on you for keeping it forward-moving! (admittedly, half of those were crushed imps, but the point still stands to some degree)

 

Visually, it wasn't revolutionary, but it's nowhere near eyesore territory. The bridge had some nice detail to it, and the rest had at least basic visual flair.

 

Combat-wise, the battles fell flat for me. The start of plowing through hitscan was great jolt to kick things off, but the map didn't hold on to this energy level. I'm not sure why the sideline monsters in the starting hallway are there, for instance; they don't affect the battle at all, just adding some cleanup for me. Similarly, the cacos and revenants outside can't really hit me while I'm on the bridge, and clearing them out once I went downstairs didn't have any threat level, which made it feel like a chore (the same goes for the following room with imps and hell knights).

 

The pace jumped back up nicely at the rocket launcher ambush, though that pretty much sorted itself out through infighting; I only fired a shot to clean up all the hell nobles at the end. The arena shape here worked pretty well though; I had to do a couple of dangerous crossovers while everyone swarmed around me.

 

Your last two encounters, the arachnotrons and the final fight, both fell prey to the almighty circle-strafe. Something to disrupt the player's path around everyone could really liven these up.

 

Your secrets were all pretty findable, though the rewards felt small to me. That can be okay, though; sometimes all we need is the good feeling of finding something that is supposedly hidden.

 

A couple of small things:

• The way the lift down at the end of the bridge is activated is a bit cryptic, pressing on an unmarked wall.
• The insides of the revenant cages outside seem to be untextured, making the cages look weirdly insubstantial. You'll want bar mid textures on both sides.

 

That's my thoughts, anyway. Still some fun to be had, even if I have gripes with how the combats went for me. If you're coming back from a long break, I hope you return feeling energized with mapping energy!

[Voxelvoid]

Thanks @Large Cat.
That non threatening bridge was a design choice - it was ment to fool you into thinking that these Caco's will easily shoot you through the bars, but they obviously don't.
I missed that texturing error, thank you very much.

[Biodegradable]

 

[Voxelvoid]

Holy hell @Biodegradable, I didn't know that the last crushers could slow up a PC :D Great video as always, mate

[azerty]

It didn't slow my pc down and it is running at the performance of a potato so that's pretty weird. My video is still uploading but should be done soon. 

[Biodegradable]

22 minutes ago, Voxelvoid said:

Holy hell @Biodegradable, I didn't know that the last crushers could slow up a PC :D Great video as always, mate

 

Oh don't worry about that, mate. That was Nash's Gore cos of all the Imp giblets it suddenly had to render under the crusher. Nothing should be wrong about it on the map's end.

Edited March 1, 2022 by Biodegradable

[azerty]

You said in the OP that the map wouldn't look that good but I think it's really not that bad. Overall it looks pretty descent and I thinks it's about doom 1 amount of detailing. Combat was pretty good for the most part. There were a lot of texture misalignment though so you should go around the maps to fix some of those.

Here is the video:

 

[Voxelvoid]

So it's not that bad you say, thank you then.
BTW that secret you didn't know why was it a secret - you've activated it by activating the red symbol on the opposite wall of it.

Edited March 1, 2022 by Voxelvoid

[Clippy]

Lol fun map and much much shorter than expected seeing the monster count. Kudos on making this a fast actiony experience. Lots of fun 

 

 

 

[Clippy]

Also that name is awesome

[Voxelvoid]

Thanks @Clippy I'm glad you like it :D Also thank you for saying the name out loud, I was waiting for it

[PeceMan]

"Fawkin Elmate" is such an appropriate name for the level

 

You start, and there are 1000 zombies shooting at you, with imps on the left and shotgunners on the right. Fawkin Elmate!

 

There's an inscription that reads "Not a Monster Closet", but if you get close enough to read it, you've already triggered it, and 3 of every enemy in Doom will come for you. Fawkin Elmate!

 

And I forgot I had the SSG, so I just spammed two Knights and a Baron with the single-barrel. Fawkin Elmate!

 

Then you see a plasma gun, but if you grab it the floor turns to lava, and like 30 Arachnotrons attack you. And you gotta kill them before your radiation suit runs out, or you'll die. Fawkin Elmate!

 

But nothing is as "Fawkin Elmate!" as the ending. You receive all the weapons, and a lot of ammo for most of them. Then an elevator lowers, and a dozen Cyberdemons start firing at you, with like 300 Imps sniping from above. I mean, seriously, Fawkin Elmate!

 

 

 

You say it isn't "the prettiest thing in the world", and it isn't, but it definitely isn't an eyesore. Aesthetically, it's perfectly functional. Charming, even. It has a late-90s/early-2000s vibe to it. 

 

In the bridge, if you run to far to either side, you'll get stuck in the geometry. What I like to do, since you already have access to 3d floors, is create a giant wall-like 3D floor with the Opacity set to 0, thus effectively creating a "Mask", which prevents the player from ever touching the parts of the geometry that prevent fluid movement.

 

Also, it's not always clear what the switches do. I didn't press the first switch until after the entire hall was cleared, out of fear of it releasing 300 more enemies into the room. But it turns out, it was a crusher which would've helped me!

 

Also, the lift that takes you down to the "Not a Monster Closet" area is not properly signaled. I mean, it was clear it was a lift, I just didn't know how to trigger it. You should add a switch texture to the wall.

 

The gameplay was a lot of fun. Pretty hectic. Definitely not a Map01 kind of deal, more of a Map23+ situation.

[Voxelvoid]

Thank you very much for that detailed description @PeceMan :)
I didn't know you can get stuck in that geometry, and I tested it (but running to the left lol).
The most important thing is that you liked the gameplay. It's all (well at least the most) I care for.

Did you find all 3 secrets?

Edited March 1, 2022 by Voxelvoid

[PeceMan]

1 minute ago, Voxelvoid said:

Did you find all 3 secrets?

2/3

[Voxelvoid]

I wonder if @Dubbag will find all 3

[Bri0che]

Nice little map, especially liked the energized start and the cyberdemons room :)

 

Just one very minor complaint, maybe a personnal one btw...
 

Spoiler

 

 

 

>>> I think this thing is, in a way, confusing, nothing too rought at all... Though I may advise you to put a SR trigger line despite a WR one for this situation as it appear to be more logical, because there is no switch to turn on so you first don't understand you have to press the wall to action a lift, there is effectively a lack of a switch texture. It's just a question of dynamism in my opinion

Edited March 2, 2022 by Briøche

[Voxelvoid]

Thanks. I've put the switch texture in place.

Edited March 1, 2022 by Voxelvoid

[Dubbag]

4 hours ago, Voxelvoid said:

I wonder if @Dubbag will find all 3

we will see :)

[Delisk]

Here me playing in a normal way

 

Here me playing with Project Brutality

 

 

If you wonder WTF is happening here why, PB is replacing the Cyberdemons (and arachnotrons) whit his own version... thus no T_CYBERDEMON can be found on the map so I win!

 

You can fix this by using T_NONE so the switch does not matter since you given them a thing id already.

 

While(ThingCount(T_NONE , 6) > 0)

While(ThingCount(T_NONE , 69) > 0)

 

 

 

 

Edited March 1, 2022 by Delisk

[Dubbag]

 

[Nikku4211]

Played it on HNTR in LZDoom under the truecolour software renderer. Jumping, crouching, and freelook are enabled, and so is autoaim.

 

I feel like the rocket launcher encounter didn't have enough space for me to properly use the rockets because there were just too many enemies, making it more easy to get blown to pieces by the blast radius of the rocket itself, and also there wasn't enough space to manuever around, especially when you're trying to avoid triggering another monster closet.

[Voxelvoid]

Awesome video as always @Dubbag!
So you say the peak of yelling Fawkin Elmate was in the Arachnotron's den :D Nice.
I mean it is a tricky map. You have to know what you can do and what to avoid. You just had to clear everything sequentially before getting the plasma gun, and clear the arachnotrons with the help (not solely the use) of it. 
And you've missed one secret :/ but this was fun to watch nevertheless.

 

 

[Dubbag]

sorry i got so upset for a second lol it was a great map that part just wore down my patience really fast lol. Or maybe im just a dick lol idk. anyways thanks for sharing!

[Voxelvoid]

@Nikku4211Yeah, that's the beauty of this part

[Voxelvoid]

11 hours ago, Delisk said:

Here me playing with Project Brutality

 

 

If you wonder WTF is happening here why, PB is replacing the Cyberdemons (and arachnotrons) whit his own version... thus no T_CYBERDEMON can be found on the map so I win!

 

You can fix this by using T_NONE so the switch does not matter since you given them a thing id already.

 

While(ThingCount(T_NONE , 6) > 0)

While(ThingCount(T_NONE , 69) > 0)

 

 

 

 

That was interesting