"Twelve Easy Pieces" - twelve Boom maps by Thelokk - now on /idgames

[Thelokk]

 

"Twelve Easy Pieces" (formerly known as "Constraining Order") is a set of twelve (or was it thirteen?...) Boom format maps that sets out to do exactly what it says on the tin - provide you some fun in an easy, stress-free environment. No evil archvile closets here (although my memory might fail me, it's been a while since I cleaned out those closets); no nasty obstacles to your carefree circlestrafing (watch your step though, I'm not insured); and certainly no revenants (skinny guy in red pants told me, how could he be wrong?). Take a stroll through techbases, temples, aquatic environments and out-there voids, always knowing that even on UV you'll never face anything worse than a slightly spicy HMP Plutonia. Small maps with low monster counts, a restrained texture choice, and occasionally a dash of my personal foibles - puzzles and platforming. Nothing you can't overcome, believe me.

 

IWAD: Doom 2.

Format: Boom.

Runtime: probably a little over 2 hours for the whole set. 

Target ports: I have personally tested on GZDoom and DSDA-Doom, playtesters additionally tested on PrBoom+, GlBoom+, and I think some guy even in Woof! but I had a few drinks last night so I might misremember.

Difficulties: implemented. I allowed myself a few dickish moments in UV, but really, give HMP a try. Eeeasy stuff. Designed for pistol start.

Coop: implemented, up to two players. Anything more is really overkill, trust me.

DM: implemented, but entirely untested.

Textures: man, what did I not use? the spine is 32in24, with a dash of GOTHIC, rfhelltex, MISCTEX, and some OTEX. Also a few custom textures by me. 

Notes: includes both a MAPINFO and a UMAPINFO, so your port will certainly get custom names, music, skies, or some combination thereof. I disabled jumping and crouching 'cause I mean, it's easy stuff, do you really need it? Freelook I leave up to you, but know that you're trading cute scenery for potential sequence breaking, MAP06 especially.

 

A big thank you to my testers, without whom I'd probably be still wondering what I sky transfer is - a full list is in the wad's 'credits' screen. And, of course, YOU! I probably borked up something while trying to fix something else, so please report and make this little guy of a mapset the best it can be!   

 

MAPLIST and MIDIs:

Spoiler

 

MAP01: Rust
MIDI: "Run" from Unreal Tournament

 

MAP02: Forgotten Retreat
MIDI: "Cave of the Ancients" from Xargon

 

MAP03: Cyber-ossuary
MIDI: "Airship Battle" from Skies of Arcadia

 

MAP04: Green-going
MIDI: "Bulnoil's theme" from Brigandine

 

MAP05: LM227
MIDI: "Become the Hunted" by James Paddock

 

MAP06: Brother Tesseract
MIDI: "Premonition" from Fury 3

 

MAP07: Heaven's Throat
MIDI: "Minor Minion" from Secret of Evermore

 

MAP08: Red Reaches
MIDI: "Boss theme" from Nightmare Creatures

 

MAP09: The Dollhouse
MIDI: "You Were There" from ICO

 

MAP10: Hands like a Womb
MIDI: "Not Tomorrow" from Silent Hill

 

MAP11: Altitude
MIDI: "Mystic Invasion" from Secret of Mana

 

MAP12: One Last Easy Piece
MIDI: "Menu Select" from Secret of Evermore

 

MAP31: Like Tears in the Rain
MIDI: "Mist" from Heretic

 

Title: MIDI rendition of "Panic Attack" by Dream Theater
Interpic: "SS_10" by anonymous

 

 

Some screenies:

 

Spoiler

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited April 11, 2022 by Thelokk

[TheMagicMushroomMan]

14 songs is not an EP, please get some musical awareness and move on from the easy listening pop rock stuff like Dream Theater.

 

This looks great! The first screenshot reminds me a little of UAC Ultra. I like the level of variety you have going on in terms of textures and themes.

[Endless]

10 minutes ago, Thelokk said:

Eeeasy stuff.

 

You better! This screenies look pretty damn sweet. I'll check this out later ;)

[Thelokk]

49 minutes ago, Endless said:

 

You better! This screenies look pretty damn sweet. I'll check this out later ;)

 

I promise :) I can beat it, anyone can.

[ScrappyMcDoogerton]

1 hour ago, Thelokk said:

certainly no revenants

 

 

 

You sneaky

 

 

Can't wait to play it, looks great.

[Pixel Fiend]

Twelve Easy Pieces immediately looks and sounds succesfully atmospheric. A solid contender to appear on my list of favourite wads.

[Thelokk]

3 minutes ago, game said:

Twelve Easy Pieces immediately looks and sounds succesfully atmospheric. A solid contender to appear on my list of favourite wads.

 

Thanks! I'm sure there is ample room for improvement, I'm a very new mapper after all, but hey - baby steps, right? Gotta start from somewhere. Let me know what you think!

[CittyKat112]

Looks cool. I beat the first map on my first try, so I'll also try to beat all maps on UV pistol start without saves... The only thing I didn't like about the first map is that you released an arch-vile in a room I just cleared and I really hate when mappers do that.

Also, I noticed a misaligned texture. Was this intentional? 

Edited March 25, 2022 by CittyKat112

[eharper256]

Absolutely don't trust that skinny guy in the red pants!!

Here's a repost of the video of the earlier version (Constraining Order) that Thelokk got me to test last week.

Maps 2 and 3 seem to be unchanged, so my video is still accurate besides that weird floor glitch at the end of the video which is fixed!

Edited March 25, 2022 by eharper256

[Pixel Fiend]

35 minutes ago, Thelokk said:

but hey - baby steps, right? Gotta start from somewhere. Let me know what you think!

 

I don't know if you're playing or just that humble.

 

I've played a bit more. Out of new wads released this year so far I'd say it's probably my favourite so far. Flows well, keeps impressing and surprising. Although as is the case with many wads, I probably prefer to play this one with the Vesper mod for Woof. 

 

Request

Add some stylish dark status bar or even mugshot replacement. With fancy custom textures stylishly used in the wad it's weird to see vanilla status bar.

[Thelokk]

5 hours ago, CittyKat112 said:

Was this intentional? 

 

Nope XD see, told ya there'd still be stuff. Goes to the pile of fixes for the next version. I actually just got some more feedback from a playtester, so I'll probably update the download file in a few days or so - don't want to disrupt peoples' first run. 

 

4 hours ago, game said:

I don't know if you're playing or just that humble.

 

What can I say... I do tend to be pretty critical of my work and, as a first mapset, I kinda geared it to turn out as more of a 'hello DW, I'm thelokk, here's what I like' kind of deal, rather than a monumental opus. These were also the reasons why I wanted *loads* of playtesters, and consider even this version basically an 'open playtest' - my eyes and hands can only go that far. 

 

4 hours ago, game said:

Out of new wads released this year so far I'd say it's probably my favourite so far.

 

Well, what can I say... thanks so much, I'm glad you're enjoying it!

 

4 hours ago, game said:

Add some stylish dark status bar or even mugshot replacement.

Fiddled with it a bit, but it was still a bit beyond my abilities. But it's in the pipeline of things to learn! Have to anyway, sooner or later.

 

Edited March 25, 2022 by Thelokk

[Biodegradable]

Congratulations on the release of your very first larger project RC, mate! I think this marks the first time I've been credited in a WAD's custom-made intro page, which is really cool! Milestones for both of our respective Dooming careers. ;^) :^P

 

Have fun, kids, but beware: That pesky Thelokk is one cheeky bastard. Stay alert and watch out for their tricks!

 

Edited June 16, 2022 by Biodegradable

[Thelokk]

1 hour ago, Biodegradable said:

Congratulations on the release of your very first larger project RC, mate! I think this marks the first time I've been credited in a WAD's custom-made intro page, which is really cool! Milestones for both of our respective Dooming careers. ;^) :^P

 

Have fun, kids, but beware: That pesky Thelokk is one cheeky bastard. Stay alert and watch out for his tricks!

 

 

Thanks!

Heh, at least you no longer get automaps as a reward for secrets XD I'm growing soft. 

[CittyKat112]

18 hours ago, Thelokk said:

 

Nope XD see, told ya there'd still be stuff. Goes to the pile of fixes for the next version. I actually just got some more feedback from a playtester, so I'll probably update the download file in a few days or so - don't want to disrupt peoples' first run. 

 

 

What can I say... I do tend to be pretty critical of my work and, as a first mapset, I kinda geared it to turn out as more of a 'hello DW, I'm thelokk, here's what I like' kind of deal, rather than a monumental opus. These were also the reasons why I wanted *loads* of playtesters, and consider even this version basically an 'open playtest' - my eyes and hands can only go that far. 

 

 

Well, what can I say... thanks so much, I'm glad you're enjoying it!

 

Fiddled with it a bit, but it was still a bit beyond my abilities. But it's in the pipeline of things to learn! Have to anyway, sooner or later.

 

I beat the second map before going to work lol. Died a few times and couldn't find out how to get that soulsphere in the cave (the one that stands near a 'lava fountain'). Also, why are there bars in this sector? You can go right through them and there's literally nothing inside. I tried to find a hidden switch in there before I started punching walls like I do irl when things don't go my way. 

[Thelokk]

Some free time, plus one more surprise playtester in, and here is already v2!

 

- Customised status bar! Still same ol' doomguy face, but now the status bar should be more in line with the title/credits screen colors. Definitely less obtrusive than the stock granite slab grey. Based on Daniel's 'Status Bar Replacement 3'.

- Shuffled around some minor ammo and spawns in map10 and map11.

- Edited linedefs to be impassable in map02 and map03.

Edited March 26, 2022 by Thelokk

[CittyKat112]

This map's ending is stupid. Why did you put that teleporter in front of the cyberemond? No matter how good you are at the game, it's up to RNG whether or not you'll UV max this map because there's no way the player can predict if the cyberemond decides to take his time before shooting rockets or obliterate your ass the moment he sees you. The teleporter destination should be placed somewhere else or you need to provide some temporary cover for the player so that the ending wouldn't be so RNG. Also it's the first map I didn't try to beat without saves, I suspect there's going to be a difficulty spike after this.

And I think you should fix this lift (soulsphere and megaarmor secret) because the only way I could lower it is by pressing on the right, thinner side which is pretty counter intuitive. I thought I got softlocked in there... 

[Thelokk]

1 hour ago, CittyKat112 said:

This map's ending is stupid. Why did you put that teleporter in front of the cyberemond? No matter how good you are at the game, it's up to RNG whether or not you'll UV max this map because there's no way the player can predict if the cyberemond decides to take his time before shooting rockets or obliterate your ass the moment he sees you. The teleporter destination should be placed somewhere else or you need to provide some temporary cover for the player so that the ending wouldn't be so RNG. Also it's the first map I didn't try to beat without saves, I suspect there's going to be a difficulty spike after this.

And I think you should fix this lift (soulsphere and megaarmor secret) because the only way I could lower it is by pressing on the right, thinner side which is pretty counter intuitive. I thought I got softlocked in there... 

 

Thanks for playing, as usual. I feel 'stupid' is a pretty strong word, but I appreciate the honesty. If that specific trap felt that inconvenient I'll consider it for a future update. 

Edited March 27, 2022 by Thelokk

[CittyKat112]

5 hours ago, Thelokk said:

 

Thanks for playing, as usual. I feel 'stupid' is a pretty strong word, but I appreciate the honesty. If that specific trap felt that inconvenient I'll consider it for a future update. 

Yeah sorry, that was a bit rude but I got mad because the problem I described is exactly what happened to me after going into that teleporter on the second time. I can't imagine how annoying that would be if I didn't use saves... I'd also suggest telegraphing that you can't fall off during the final fight. If this somehow makes the final fight easier, consider making a fake floor to make it look like there's an obstacle preventing you from falling down. The trap is ok, it's just that it can be lowered 'properly'. It would be cool if you'd just edit the wider linedef and make it so the player wouldn't have to fall down in the lava to use it (unless that was the intended way of doing things, of course). I'm gonna message you in private if I'll run into some other stuff like this.

Edited March 27, 2022 by CittyKat112

[CrueCut]

What part of this is "easy"?   I must have skipped that part by mistake ;-)

[Thelokk]

3 minutes ago, CrueCut said:

What part of this is "easy"?   I must have skipped that part by mistake ;-)

 

Really? Genuinely curious if you came across any bottleneck. HMP or UV? In the latter I did allow myself some trickery - target was a very early Sunlust at the worst. 

[CrueCut]

I'm playing on HMP.  When map01 has me dealing with revenants and an AV armed with just a shotgun, that exits the "easy" category for me.  I'm not complaining at all -- maybe I should play on a lower skill than HMP, I imagine you meant "easy" a bit tongue-in-cheek anyway, and I am hardly the expert Doom player in any event.

[Thelokk]

5 hours ago, CrueCut said:

I'm playing on HMP.  When map01 has me dealing with revenants and an AV armed with just a shotgun, that exits the "easy" category for me.  I'm not complaining at all -- maybe I should play on a lower skill than HMP, I imagine you meant "easy" a bit tongue-in-cheek anyway, and I am hardly the expert Doom player in any event.

 

Heh, my reasoning was that the architecture provides loads of cover, and the AV is placed so at worst I'd resurrect a gunner, but AVs in general is something I might need to take another look at - I've been told by a tester that I was slightly heavy handed with them for an 'easy' wad's standards. 

Edited March 27, 2022 by Thelokk

[Large Cat]

I played through the "new" maps; here are some FDA's for you: 12easy.zip. You are marketing these as "easy" maps, but it would still be worth comparing the difficulty to some known wads. To many people, I think "easy" is on par with Doom II: Hell on Earth, which is not even close to these maps in intensity. Even if you don't consider yourself a master of doom combat, being able to beat your own maps can be a poor indication of difficulty, given your deep knowledge of the monster placement and map progression.

 

Overall, the combat was quick and there was some nice running and gunning. I enjoyed the thematic variety, and texture choices seemed tasteful. My big visual gripe is texture alignment: I think you are still totally ignoring texture alignment at height changes, which results in a ton of misalignment. Cleaning that up seems like the most obvious step to take here, as the other visual elements are strong. One note about progression: make it clearer where lifts are so I don't have to spend as much time wandering only to find a chunk of the ground or wall is a lift I need to use. This is most prominent in MAP11.

 

Some thoughts about the new maps:

Spoiler

MAP08

• There appear to be two softlocks, both of which trapped me in my attempts. One is a gap in the octagons at the beginning/exit area. The other is the region outside the arena, which appears inescapable.
• The path to the exit really isn't clear; I think the lift could be signaled must more strongly by increasing the height of the exit area so I can tell I'm not supposed to solve a platforming puzzle at the end.
• The combat seems daunting before you've made a plan, but once you have a radsuit, the combat devolves into waiting until the monsters thin themselves out, then mopping them up with plasma. The combat could probably made more thoughtful and harder to outright escape by removing the radsuits and instead giving some additional platforms to walk on.

MAP09

• This map captures your "easy and relaxing" vibe the best. Combat is quick and offers little resistance, and the visuals are neat with some fun detailing.
• Your outdoor wooden lift could be highlighted to result in less searching around in the dark outdoors.
• The spider mastermind felt like a needless time sink, offering no challenge.
• The pop-up monsters in one room don't actually pop up if you enter from inside the building rather than the outdoor entrance.

MAP10

• This was a tight little combat piece, also on the easier side, as you seem to intend.
• The initial walk-through was good wind-up and tension building. I was a little weirded out that I received the chaingun before the other guns, which made me worry I had missed weapon pickups at first.
• The initial imps that spawn in don't add much to the combat of the map, but they're not a big deal.
• I'd suggest highlighting the switch that raises the walkway to the revenant platform to minimize aimless searching.

MAP11

• The progression of this map kept confusing me due to the number of surfaces that didn't look like lifts. Most notably are the platform in front of the mancubus, the platform to the blue door, and the pillars with items in the outdoor fight.
• There seems to be some big cheese potential by playing the beginning of the map pacifist until completing the outdoor area. I display the first portion of this in the demo, though I didn't keep it up as I didn't know where to go. It's up to you whether to keep it like this or make it harder to silently run through the first portion of the map.
• The imps on the stairs don't end up being dangerous, so they feel like something of a time-waster. However, some people find pleasure in shotgunning hordes of imps, so those people will have a blast.
• When approached as intended, the outdoor fight can go sideways real quick, given the limited space. Having two cyberdemons is really what does it, as they can slam all of the opposition, and one of them is typically targeting the player. Again, it's up to you whether you want to smooth the potential difficulty spike.

MAP12

• I didn't realize this was a THE END map, since it isn't communicated clearly and it seems beatable at first. I'd make the unfinishable nature of this map more signaled so no one tries to burn fruitless attempts like me.
• I enjoy the light effects in this little arena.

Some nice stuff going on in here. The combat does get wonky at times to my taste, but there is a lot to be enjoyed. Across the wad, I think I had the best time with the earlier maps, but I know I've mentioned some other standouts in my notes. I hope to see more from you as you keep refining your craft!

[Thelokk]

46 minutes ago, Large Cat said:

I played through the "new" maps; here are some FDA's for you: 12easy.zip. You are marketing these as "easy" maps, but it would still be worth comparing the difficulty to some known wads. To many people, I think "easy" is on par with Doom II: Hell on Earth, which is not even close to these maps in intensity. Even if you don't consider yourself a master of doom combat, being able to beat your own maps can be a poor indication of difficulty, given your deep knowledge of the monster placement and map progression.

 

Overall, the combat was quick and there was some nice running and gunning. I enjoyed the thematic variety, and texture choices seemed tasteful. My big visual gripe is texture alignment: I think you are still totally ignoring texture alignment at height changes, which results in a ton of misalignment. Cleaning that up seems like the most obvious step to take here, as the other visual elements are strong. One note about progression: make it clearer where lifts are so I don't have to spend as much time wandering only to find a chunk of the ground or wall is a lift I need to use. This is most prominent in MAP11.

 

Some thoughts about the new maps:

  Hide contents

MAP08

• There appear to be two softlocks, both of which trapped me in my attempts. One is a gap in the octagons at the beginning/exit area. The other is the region outside the arena, which appears inescapable.
• The path to the exit really isn't clear; I think the lift could be signaled must more strongly by increasing the height of the exit area so I can tell I'm not supposed to solve a platforming puzzle at the end.
• The combat seems daunting before you've made a plan, but once you have a radsuit, the combat devolves into waiting until the monsters thin themselves out, then mopping them up with plasma. The combat could probably made more thoughtful and harder to outright escape by removing the radsuits and instead giving some additional platforms to walk on.

MAP09

• This map captures your "easy and relaxing" vibe the best. Combat is quick and offers little resistance, and the visuals are neat with some fun detailing.
• Your outdoor wooden lift could be highlighted to result in less searching around in the dark outdoors.
• The spider mastermind felt like a needless time sink, offering no challenge.
• The pop-up monsters in one room don't actually pop up if you enter from inside the building rather than the outdoor entrance.

MAP10

• This was a tight little combat piece, also on the easier side, as you seem to intend.
• The initial walk-through was good wind-up and tension building. I was a little weirded out that I received the chaingun before the other guns, which made me worry I had missed weapon pickups at first.
• The initial imps that spawn in don't add much to the combat of the map, but they're not a big deal.
• I'd suggest highlighting the switch that raises the walkway to the revenant platform to minimize aimless searching.

MAP11

• The progression of this map kept confusing me due to the number of surfaces that didn't look like lifts. Most notably are the platform in front of the mancubus, the platform to the blue door, and the pillars with items in the outdoor fight.
• There seems to be some big cheese potential by playing the beginning of the map pacifist until completing the outdoor area. I display the first portion of this in the demo, though I didn't keep it up as I didn't know where to go. It's up to you whether to keep it like this or make it harder to silently run through the first portion of the map.
• The imps on the stairs don't end up being dangerous, so they feel like something of a time-waster. However, some people find pleasure in shotgunning hordes of imps, so those people will have a blast.
• When approached as intended, the outdoor fight can go sideways real quick, given the limited space. Having two cyberdemons is really what does it, as they can slam all of the opposition, and one of them is typically targeting the player. Again, it's up to you whether you want to smooth the potential difficulty spike.

MAP12

• I didn't realize this was a THE END map, since it isn't communicated clearly and it seems beatable at first. I'd make the unfinishable nature of this map more signaled so no one tries to burn fruitless attempts like me.
• I enjoy the light effects in this little arena.

Some nice stuff going on in here. The combat does get wonky at times to my taste, but there is a lot to be enjoyed. Across the wad, I think I had the best time with the earlier maps, but I know I've mentioned some other standouts in my notes. I hope to see more from you as you keep refining your craft!

 

Thanks, good that I can count on your keen eye for visuals and combat, as always - hoping it will also be so for my future projects, if that's ok. I will do another texture pass - not all misalignments are unintentional, but some certainly are.

Later in the week I will gather all feeback, including yours, and produce a v2, probably the last one before /idgames - it's a small, introductory mapset, and I don't want it to overstay its welcome.

 

Edited March 28, 2022 by Thelokk

[sandwedge]

 

Hey I played the first 3 maps and the beginning of the 4th, so far this is a great wad!  Some fun dynamic combat and appealing visuals.  The biggest problem I have is it being marketed as easy, not necessarily the map name since that can mean anything, but just the thread description.  It's not super hard by any means but calling it easy I expect it to be like the iwads, id did, deathless and the like... heck I've played a bunch of maps lately that weren't necessarily described as such but I had no trouble going through UV saveless with no deaths.  I'm not a doom god or anything but I'm fairly competent I would say.  The problem with saying it's easy is like in my situation, where I specifically chose this wad because I was tired at the end of the day and I thought cool here's something laid back.  It was pretty clear it wasn't pretty early on though so I had ample warning.

 

Personally I think this is a shame because some people might be in my situation and be a bit annoyed despite the maps being great!  Tbh I assumed that you were trolling people which I actually thought was kinda funny, but it seems you were sincere.  That's fine I get it, it's def easy compared to lots of stuff and when you play your own maps you might get blind to the difficulty.  If I sound too salty in the video don't take it to heart, I tried to give you some praise that your really deserve too.  It's just the context like I said of feeling mislead when I'm not in the mood for something.

 

Other big issues for me:

 

By map 3 it was pretty clear I was going to save, and I'm extremely glad I did because as was brought up that cyberdemon teleport is brutal.  Even if you have enough time to sidestep the rocket with his fastest shot (not sure) the first time you are so disoriented that it's just pure RNG if he gets you.  Which he did the first time I got there.  Yeah, not sure how you want to modify that, maybe put you further back to give you some time or something, since it's pretty dumb to have to die due to RNG.

 

I got to the fourth map and I thought the first encounter was awesome!  Very atmospheric, great music, interesting combat!  Then after I got stuck, and only figured it out after recording.  The map made it seem like the wrong door would open.  I even found the little notch in the wall for the ledge but it still didn't occur to me because it's SOOO THIN.  I mean, it's hard to get on that even if you try.  Thing is, I think I would have found that sooner had I noticed the supercharge ledge secret earlier, but I didn't.  As it is this reminded me of the worst of eternal doom cryptic secrets.  Doable by all means, but after such an awesome opener it just totally dragged down the experience.  I assume mileage may very and some may find it right away, and I assume you were going for cryptic but maybe it's a bit too much.  If anything just making the ledge a bit wider so it's more noticeable would probably do wonders.  As it is I didn't even notice it because it almost looks like a seam in the wall that is just a minor blemish in the map, not intentional.  I wonder how hard that would be to spot in software mode too.

 

Anywho I have a few pics of stuff that may be minor issues that may or may not need solving.  I point most of them out in the video but compiled them here too just in case that's more convenient.  Hope it helps! :)

Spoiler

 

This grate and the one on the other side isn't solid, you can walk through to the lava which is a weird effect.

 

This room is a bit weird, I got here and was like what do I do now?  Took me a bit to realize the exit door opened, maybe when I hit the elevator switch?  But it's not clear for a bit, maybe put a switch up on the ledge where you can clearly see the door open?

 

I think it was already pointed out but this only raises from the side, probably shouldn't.  Also the gap to the left is a softlock until it kills you but that might be intended since it's kind of a funny troll if you go for the supercharge and go too far.  That is if you want a troll deathpit there, which I would prefer not personally.

 

This is a bit of a pain if you forget to hit the exit switch and have to wait there for a while.  Not sure how to remedy this since you probably designed it to be a survival period.

 

As you can see the door I'm closest too looks like the one that opens which only confused me more.  So much so that I assumed an issue with compatibility (turns out I was on the wrong setting but that wasn't the issue).  Intended or does it open later?

 

There's a piece of grate sticking out here, now that I look it not sure if it's a torch holder or something but it looked like a mistake.

 

The textures on the side of this door scrolled up which I think is an issue, at least it is with other types of doors.

 

 

I haven't actually left such detailed critiques to a wad before because I really like this one!  Hope it's helpful and I look forward to playing through the rest of it!

Edited March 28, 2022 by sandwedge
extra picture

[Womp the Cat]

Congrats!

Gonna start this tonight, the screenshots look amazing!!

[Thelokk]

3 hours ago, sandwedge said:

 

Hey I played the first 3 maps and the beginning of the 4th, so far this is a great wad!  Some fun dynamic combat and appealing visuals.  The biggest problem I have is it being marketed as easy, not necessarily the map name since that can mean anything, but just the thread description.  It's not super hard by any means but calling it easy I expect it to be like the iwads, id did, deathless and the like... heck I've played a bunch of maps lately that weren't necessarily described as such but I had no trouble going through UV saveless with no deaths.  I'm not a doom god or anything but I'm fairly competent I would say.  The problem with saying it's easy is like in my situation, where I specifically chose this wad because I was tired at the end of the day and I thought cool here's something laid back.  It was pretty clear it wasn't pretty early on though so I had ample warning.

 

Personally I think this is a shame because some people might be in my situation and be a bit annoyed despite the maps being great!  Tbh I assumed that you were trolling people which I actually thought was kinda funny, but it seems you were sincere.  That's fine I get it, it's def easy compared to lots of stuff and when you play your own maps you might get blind to the difficulty.  If I sound too salty in the video don't take it to heart, I tried to give you some praise that your really deserve too.  It's just the context like I said of feeling mislead when I'm not in the mood for something.

 

Other big issues for me:

 

By map 3 it was pretty clear I was going to save, and I'm extremely glad I did because as was brought up that cyberdemon teleport is brutal.  Even if you have enough time to sidestep the rocket with his fastest shot (not sure) the first time you are so disoriented that it's just pure RNG if he gets you.  Which he did the first time I got there.  Yeah, not sure how you want to modify that, maybe put you further back to give you some time or something, since it's pretty dumb to have to die due to RNG.

 

I got to the fourth map and I thought the first encounter was awesome!  Very atmospheric, great music, interesting combat!  Then after I got stuck, and only figured it out after recording.  The map made it seem like the wrong door would open.  I even found the little notch in the wall for the ledge but it still didn't occur to me because it's SOOO THIN.  I mean, it's hard to get on that even if you try.  Thing is, I think I would have found that sooner had I noticed the supercharge ledge secret earlier, but I didn't.  As it is this reminded me of the worst of eternal doom cryptic secrets.  Doable by all means, but after such an awesome opener it just totally dragged down the experience.  I assume mileage may very and some may find it right away, and I assume you were going for cryptic but maybe it's a bit too much.  If anything just making the ledge a bit wider so it's more noticeable would probably do wonders.  As it is I didn't even notice it because it almost looks like a seam in the wall that is just a minor blemish in the map, not intentional.  I wonder how hard that would be to spot in software mode too.

 

Anywho I have a few pics of stuff that may be minor issues that may or may not need solving.  I point most of them out in the video but compiled them here too just in case that's more convenient.  Hope it helps! :)

  Reveal hidden contents

 

This grate and the one on the other side isn't solid, you can walk through to the lava which is a weird effect.

 

This room is a bit weird, I got here and was like what do I do now?  Took me a bit to realize the exit door opened, maybe when I hit the elevator switch?  But it's not clear for a bit, maybe put a switch up on the ledge where you can clearly see the door open?

 

I think it was already pointed out but this only raises from the side, probably shouldn't.  Also the gap to the left is a softlock until it kills you but that might be intended since it's kind of a funny troll if you go for the supercharge and go too far.  That is if you want a troll deathpit there, which I would prefer not personally.

 

This is a bit of a pain if you forget to hit the exit switch and have to wait there for a while.  Not sure how to remedy this since you probably designed it to be a survival period.

 

As you can see the door I'm closest too looks like the one that opens which only confused me more.  So much so that I assumed an issue with compatibility (turns out I was on the wrong setting but that wasn't the issue).  Intended or does it open later?

 

There's a piece of grate sticking out here, now that I look it not sure if it's a torch holder or something but it looked like a mistake.

 

The textures on the side of this door scrolled up which I think is an issue, at least it is with other types of doors.

 

 

I haven't actually left such detailed critiques to a wad before because I really like this one!  Hope it's helpful and I look forward to playing through the rest of it!

 

Thanks so much for the feedback!

To my 'defense', I have to say I did actually think my maps were rather easy - trolling wasn't my intention since I'd also be trolling myself, as I'm a very, very mediocre player.  

Now, the easy way out would be to drop the 'easy' from the tagline, but I was never one for easy ways out, and I want this to be a true learning experience for me. So, once the feedback settles, I'll be producing a v2 that, along with other issues, takes a long hard look at difficulty, and rebalances at least HMP to truly be the experience I had in mind. 

In the meantime thanks again and, if you feel like it, let me know what you think of the remaining maps!

[UncleTito]

Hello, first off, I would like to thank you for putting in the work to make this wad. A lot of care for detail and monster placement shines through a lot of the levels and I'm excited to see the new stuff you put out subsequently.

 

Now, to the shit-flinging.

 

When you said this was easy, while this isn't brutally difficult, I wouldn't call this "easy" in any sense. Some maps I feel have a large number of bullshit-difficulty mistakes that a lot of first-timers and early mappers might tend to do.

I know this has been a long-debated thing on the forums, but please try pistol starting your own levels - I can really, REALLY tell you aren't, judging by having to plonk away at barons, HKs and archies with a single shotty/chaingun. Starting the player off with an SSG is an easy and simple way of remedying this, although you can get creative with an out-of-reach zerk pack.

 

Also, please get rid of the kill floors. They're not fun, anywhere, anyhow. "Challenge" maps IMO may get away with it, but I don't associate "easy" with inescapable pits.

The Cyberdemon teleporter trap is particularly egregious also, I feel - try to minimize encounters where player survival HEAVILY depends on a monster shooting and moving in a certain way, as opposed to actual player skill. Start the cyber off in front of a see-through wall or fence that you can't shoot thru, for example.

 

I may have more to add but this is the only stuff that comes to mind, I'm in a bit of a hurry right now.

My final point though is - you're good at this. Little bit derivative, but overall very fun stuff.

[Thelokk]

8 minutes ago, UncleTito said:

Hello, first off, I would like to thank you for putting in the work to make this wad. A lot of care for detail and monster placement shines through a lot of the levels and I'm excited to see the new stuff you put out subsequently.

 

Now, to the shit-flinging.

 

When you said this was easy, while this isn't brutally difficult, I wouldn't call this "easy" in any sense. Some maps I feel have a large number of bullshit-difficulty mistakes that a lot of first-timers and early mappers might tend to do.

I know this has been a long-debated thing on the forums, but please try pistol starting your own levels - I can really, REALLY tell you aren't, judging by having to plonk away at barons, HKs and archies with a single shotty/chaingun. Starting the player off with an SSG is an easy and simple way of remedying this, although you can get creative with an out-of-reach zerk pack.

 

Also, please get rid of the kill floors. They're not fun, anywhere, anyhow. "Challenge" maps IMO may get away with it, but I don't associate "easy" with inescapable pits.

The Cyberdemon teleporter trap is particularly egregious also, I feel - try to minimize encounters where player survival HEAVILY depends on a monster shooting and moving in a certain way, as opposed to actual player skill. Start the cyber off in front of a see-through wall or fence that you can't shoot thru, for example.

 

I may have more to add but this is the only stuff that comes to mind, I'm in a bit of a hurry right now.

My final point though is - you're good at this. Little bit derivative, but overall very fun stuff.

 

Thanks for the feedback, it's in line with the general sentiment so it will definitely be incorporated (except for the death pits, those will stay). Only thing I'd like to add - I personally completed every single map with pistol start, since other testers took care of the continuous play. Guess I am a more skilled player than I give myself credit for!

[Thelokk]

Just a small last bump for v2. I had the whole day off so I sat down and went hardcore at rebalancing all the spawns and difficulties - hopefully HMP is now where it's supposed to be at, and HNTR even a step easier. Going to let this sit down for a few days, and then /idgames it and move on.

 

Overall, I'd say making a solo project was a fun experience, but not 'collaboration' or 'community project' level of fun, so I don't really see myself doing it again. Still, thanks to all who playtested, and see you around! I have maps in pretty much every upcoming community project thread up for testing, if you're interested.