Observations- Boom map

[Silhouette 03]

Hey everyone, this is my fifth publicly released map. I was a bit hesitant to release it since I was very nervous and it's been a while since I publicly released something. I want to make a good impression with my releases i.e. not have progression stopping bugs. I hope I succeeded on that front at least. Anyway, This is a tech base map that shouldn't take you more than five minutes to complete. As always feedback is welcome and appreciated.

 

Special thanks to @Biodegradable for taking the time to test my map (and ran into a few bugs along the way that I desperately needed to fix) and @Borg for helping me with said bugs.

 

Specifics:

Name: Observations

Format: Boom

IWAD: Doom 2

Maps: Map01

Music: Nuisances Unknown by Doomkid from mid the way id did midi pack

Difficulty settings : Yes

Requirements: No jumping or crouching. Freelook optional

Tested with: GZDoom 4.7.1

Build time: One month and two weeks, give or take

DOWNLOAD->>Observations.7z<<

 

Screenshots:

Spoiler

  

 

I hope you have fun with this!

-S.W

 

P.S If someone could show me how to make it so that pictures uploaded through Imgur show up in the post ( not in a link) I'd be very grateful.

 

 

Edited March 3, 2022 by Silent Wolf

[Thelokk]

4 minutes ago, Silent Wolf said:

Hey everyone, this is my fifth publicly released map. I was a bit hesitant to release it since I was very nervous and it's been a while since I publicly released something. I want to make a good impression with my releases i.e. not have progression stopping bugs. I hope I succeeded on that front at least. Anyway, This is a tech base map that shouldn't take you more than five minutes to complete. As always feedback is welcome and appreciated

 

Special thanks to @Biodegradable for taking the time to test my map (and ran into a few bugs along the way that I desperately needed to fix) and @Borg for helping me with said bugs.

 

Specifics:

Name: Observations

Format: Boom

IWAD: Doom 2

Maps: Map01

Music: Nuisances Unknown by Doomkid from mid the way id did midi pack

Difficulty settings : Yes

Requirements: No Jumping or crouching. Freelook optional

Build time: One month and two weeks, give or take

DOWNLOAD->>Observations.7z<<

 

Screenshots:

  Hide contents

https://imgur.com/a/d2zRWCs 

https://imgur.com/a/zKgFebM

https://imgur.com/a/TEqcFug

  

 

I hope you have fun with this!

-S.W

 

P.S If someone could show me how to make it so that pictures uploaded through Imgur show up in the post ( not in a link) I'd be very grateful.

 

 

 

Nice! Will play it later today!

 

For the image thing, upload the ss as 'image' instead of 'post', then copy paste the "BBoard" code you're given right into your Doomworld post :)

 

Edited March 1, 2022 by Thelokk

[azerty]

This was a pretty solid map. A good old tech base never gets old. Overall it looked pretty nice but there were a lot of misaligned textures though. I suggest you go around the map and go search for some. You will probably have to correct those manually. Combat was pretty aggressive but fun and not to frustrating. At some points in the map I felt like I had maybe a bit to muck ammo so maybe try to do some more ammo balancing (could also just be in my run so maybe wait to see if it was the same for other people). I encountered a weird visual bug but that is on my end I think. Idk what GZDoom was doing but I just no clipped through it (I hope I didn't break anything by doing that let me know). Nice to see you are a mapper to I didn't know that. I hope to see more maps from you in the future. 

Here is the video:

 

[Silhouette 03]

@azerty thanks for playing and I'm glad you enjoyed the map. I may have accidently linked the wrong version, so that's why you have a rocket launcher instead of a plasma gun. I've already taken care of the misalignments so thanks for pointing that out. That bug once happened to me and I have no idea what is causing it or how to solve it. Hopefully it's just a one time thing, or an minor issue with GZDoom. I don't know where that imp is. I checked the map in Doombuilder and I don't see anything. Yeah, I've been mapping for a year now. It's really fun once all the pieces come together. Thanks again!

[Thelokk]

Sorry, can't record demos at the moment due to bandwidth.

 

A pretty nice, solid techbase with a very traditional feel. Past the red door some tough ambushes (well telegraphed by the very slow lowering walls) kinda took me by surprise considering the rather laid-back level of difficulty up to that point, but nothing insormountable. A bit abundant on ammo and stingy on health overall, especially if you have butter fingers like I do, but again, nothing too extreme. Good one! Didn't encounter the mentioned bug. 

Edited March 1, 2022 by Thelokk

[Silhouette 03]

4 minutes ago, Thelokk said:

Sorry, can't record demos at the moment due to bandwidth.

 

A pretty nice, solid techbase with a very traditional feel. Past the red door some tough ambushes (well telegraphed by the very slow lowering walls) kinda took me by surprise considering the rather laid-back level of difficulty up to that point, but nothing insormountable. A bit abundant on ammo and stingy on health overall, especially if you have butter fingers like I do, but again, nothing too extreme. Good one! Didn't encounter the mentioned bug. 

Thanks for playing. I'll have a look at the health balancing, but I'm glad you enjoyed the map regardless. Thanks again for helping me with Imgur. I've been trying to work out how to do that for months now ha ha.

[Kor]

Decent map.  Though it needs more attention to texture alignment.  But people have already pointed that out.  Other than that I didn't encounter anything other people haven't.

[Silhouette 03]

Thank you for taking the time to play it. I've eliminated most of the misalignments, so thanks for pointing that out. Have a nice day!

[TeK (⌐■_■)]

Gave this a spin on hmp. Combat was fun, forcing you to move around, and I liked the aggressive archvile use in the later half of the map. I also love seeing little touches of environmental storytelling/doomcute, the opened crates with relics/demonic shit inside, the blood trail to the outside door, etc..

 

I did run into one minor issue and one major issue unfortunately.

 

The minor, there's a tiny little HOM under the wall here.

Spoiler

 

 

The major, the lift up to the YK doesn't work in prboom.

 

I recorded a hmp fda observationshmpfda.zip

[BauwenDR]

I tested on prBoom-plus (complevel 9)

 

I generally experienced the same issues as TeK.
But also had the chaingunnner/ pinky room not open up after grabbing the chaingun.

 

After I loked through the map in doombuilder:

- The lift not working is most likely because it is tagged with sector tag 0 (which can have interesting results on some source ports, in this case it either lowers the whole map really fast or doesn't do anything)

- The chaingunner + pinkies ambush is tagged as floor lower to lowest adjacent floor, which doesnt lower, because the floor is already at the lowest point. (it should be the ceiling that raises)

 

Overall good map imo, the start was hecktick but enjoyable, I did have a bit to much plasma ammo. Maybe trade some in for rockets (as I missed those)?

[Silhouette 03]

@TeK (⌐■_■) Yeah, I deleted a secret area as it was too obtuse and I stupidly forgot to check for HOMs. Quick question, how do you play an FDA? I'm not familiar with them.  

 

@BauwenDR  I think I fixed the lift. I'll add an updated version in the OP. I also fixed the chaingunner trap by setting it to a W1 door open stay. Thanks for pointing it out. I'll take a look at the cells as well. There is no RL or rockets in the map, though. Unless you found some that I accidently forgot to take out of the last version.

Thanks for playing!

[TeK (⌐■_■)]

8 minutes ago, Silent Wolf said:

@TeK (⌐■_■) Yeah, I deleted a secret area as it was too obtuse and I stupidly forgot to check for HOMs. Quick question, how do you play an FDA? I'm not familiar with them.  

 

 

 

FDA just means first demo attempt. You play a demo from the command line with -playdemo demoname.lmp.

[Silhouette 03]

10 minutes ago, TeK (⌐■_■) said:

 

FDA just means first demo attempt. You play a demo from the command line with -playdemo demoname.lmp.

I only have GZDoom, but I'll download prBoom as soon as I can.

EDIT: How do I bring up the command line?

Edited March 1, 2022 by Silent Wolf

[TeK (⌐■_■)]

14 minutes ago, Silent Wolf said:

I only have GZDoom, but I'll download prBoom as soon as I can.

EDIT: How do I bring up the command line?

 

Oh, no from the command prompt on whatever OS you have, not from in-port console, prboom and many other ports don't have a console.

From command prompt, navigate to whatever directory you've got prboom in and then enter, 

prboom-plus.exe -iwad doom2.wad -file observations.wad -skill 3 -warp -complevel 9 -playdemo observationshmpfda.lmp

[Silhouette 03]

Yeah, I have no idea what I'm doing. I'm really, really sorry. Thank you for your patience and I really appreciate you playing my map. 

[Delisk]

Is it me or the download link is broken?

 

Sorry, there is a problem

We could not locate the item you are trying to view.

Error code: 2S328/1

 

 

[azerty]

Same problem with me probably something the admins need to fix

[Silhouette 03]

10 hours ago, Delisk said:

Is it me or the download link is broken?

 

10 hours ago, azerty said:

Same problem with me probably something the admins need to fix

I reposted the download link and it seemed to work. Thanks for bringing it to my attention.

[Clippy]

I guess I wasn't very observant because I couldn't figure out how to beat this map. I tried to play before work but I ran out of time and I ran out of ammo and I didn't even have a rocket launcher. I got especially frustrated trying to punch out Archies with a regular fist. What did I do wrong? 

 

I'd be willing to try it again but this unfortunate blind run I had was frustrating because I couldn't get enough resources to get going. I also saw things on top of crates like a bulk cell or a berserk that I couldn't reach... I hope the secrets aren't required here

 

Sorry 

 

 

 

[Silhouette 03]

Hey Clippy thank you for taking the time to play my wad. I'm trying to watch your video but my internet is deciding against it. The thing about the ammo shortage is that people in this thread have said there is too much ammo. I don't really know what to do now. The secrets aren't necessary for completion. I added some more health as well. The reason I gave you a plasma gun is that when I asked Biodegradable to playtest, I noticed in his video that he managed to complete this section without dying once with the RL, so I replaced it. I'm sorry for the frustration caused. I swear I wasn't trying to troll you or anything. I'm just struggling to release a map that doesn't break or have a myriad of little issues with it. Anyway, thanks for playing. I'm really sorry.

[Clippy]

Hello there I want you to know that I'm going to play this map again TONIGHT and the experience I provided was only a blind run and not practiced and that does make a difference

 

Also my videos have different quality settings select 360p if your internet is wonky

 

Ammo balance is often tricky. I personally tend to give too much ammo but either way you can't please everybody. 

 

I know you weren't trolling and I would have reacted poorly in my frustration while playing

 

Hope to make a much better video for tonight now that I have a feel for the map 

 

It's all good buddy I shouldn't have tried to rush this morning hehe

 

 

[Degree23]

The thing with ammo and Arch Viles is that they can play absolute havoc with ammo balance. For example, seeing there was more than one switch in the area, I kited the Revenants and hit the second switch, which then released two AVs. Because I hadn't killed anything, I focused the AVs down first and they didn't resurrect anything. Had I killed the Revenants first, it's likely the AVs would have got a few resurrections off, and then I need to expend another possibly 20-60 Cells, or 4-12 SSG ammo. Because this didn't happen for me, I thought the ammo was a little bit light, but not too bad.

 

I couldn't seem to get the Chaingun. I hit a switch in the area that I thought would lower the pillar, but nothing happened?

 

Nice fun map overall.

[Clippy]

Good point above. Archie's resurrecting things and resource starving is a dangerous mix 

 

So I rarely replay maps but after my epic fail this morning I learning your map on work from home breaks and lunches. 

 

It's very tight to get a UV Max but more than doable with care. It was stressful lol but ultimately fun. Not friendly to blind players and a lot can go wrong 

 

Enjoy 

 

 

I grew to like this map a lot - it's better once you know it

[knifeworld]

This is great stuff, really enjoyed running thru it!!!

Tested a whole bunch in: Woof 6.2, DSDA Doom 0.23, GZDoom 4.6.0, LZDoom 3.8, Nugget doom 1.6.1


There are 2 issues that persist across all source ports, including GZdoom and LZdoom:

1: The pillar with the chaingun is set to S1 floor lower to 8 above Highest Floor, but the walk-over trigger for the nearby monster closet fully cuts the pillar into 2 different sectors so one or both will count as the "highest floor", meaning the pillar wont lower correctly.
The solution may be to draw the trigger lines for the closet around the pillar just 2 or 4 map units away from the edge, this way you can only activate that closet once it lowers, and the pillar will just be one sector so it will work.

2: There is a spot in the outside area on the cliff where an imp or hell knight will almost always get stuck deep into the ground, it can't be killed without rocket splash damage.
For whatever reason every attempt to upload images gets stuck on "uploading..." I'ts been like this for me for a while now, so the best I can do is describe where the issue is: The location this happens is near a narrow point that is above and slightly to the left of a brown crate, if you look in UDB.
You could move some of the vertices around to make that part wider, or change where the monsters are located slightly, or preferably both, just to be sure.

 

Other than that, there's the hot start (although this can be subjective based on skill level or play style).. IMHO it's very RNG based and can be annoying no matter whether you start by grabbing the armour or blowing up a few hitscanners with the barrel.
I'd suggest removing just one of the shotgunners near the big window, or an imp.

In the Blue Key Room, you can get stuck behind the revenant platform near the crushers if you run off the edge by mistake. I suggest adding a fence midtexture and making the linedef impassable.


Other small issues I spotted were insignificant in that they didn't break the map:
- lift up to the yellow key has another sector near it that also lowers and causes a HOM.
- a linedef connected to the pool of blood on the outside cliff bleeds into the ground (pun half intended), looks like a huge slime trail or similar to how u can sometimes see midtextures below the ground in software rendering, not sure what's happening there.
- a slime wall in the Blue key room opens but there's nothing behind there.
- one silver computer panel is misaligned or the box it's in isn't the right size.


Overall a very nice fifth map! Hope you continue to make and release more techbase scenarios like this.

Edited March 3, 2022 by knifeworld

[Silhouette 03]

@Clippy Sorry for not seeing your post sooner. I wasn't trying to create a resource starvation style map, but I do like seeing you strategized how to handle every encounter . I'm just really struggling with resource balancing. Feedback seems divided on that front. I also fixed the sector. I'm really glad you gleaned some enjoyment out of it. I also uploaded a new version with a lot more ammo and health. Thanks for playing!

 

@knifeworld Thanks for playing. I fixed all the bugs mentioned in your post, so thanks for pointing them out. I'm really glad you enjoyed the map. Have a nice day and thanks for playing!

 

@Degree23 Thanks for playing and I'm glad you liked the map. Have a good one :)

Edited March 3, 2022 by Silent Wolf

[Clippy]

Out of curiosity how much extra inventory did you add? I don't want to be responsible for this map turning too easy I just thought it was a tad tight before so if you did add more I wouldn't suggest too much

 

Again this is just my opinion as a mapper you have to take everybody's thoughts into consideration and ultimately make your own choices

 

Good luck!

[Silhouette 03]

3 minutes ago, Clippy said:

Out of curiosity how much extra inventory did you add

Quite a few shells, some cells and a number of stimpacks. Thanks for the kind words.