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

[sandwedge]

 

Enjoyed these three maps with a couple caveats.  Like I said last time love the opening archvile fight in map 4, hate the ledge for progression.  Rest of that level is great.  Map 5 has some cool slimey chasm vibes, I like the curved ledges, and was pretty straightforward with combat, more instant death pits but I guess you're into those.  Map 6 was pretty cool but I gotta say some of the archvile cover is a bit annoying.  A lot of it is like just short enough that the archvile can see your head or something and it's not clear whether you'll be hit or not.  I had to figure out which cover would protect me while trying to get cover from two archviles at opposite ends and imps everywhere.  And trying not to rocket yourself.  But I like the room's design, personally I would make some of the cover high enough for the viles but maybe that's part of the challenge.  You also don't need to drop down in the slime pit to hit the switch, doesn't make much of a difference though.  Also you can just run past all the pinkies pretty easily but maybe that's the point because of the secret level switches?  You have to go back to find them.  Pinkies would actually be pretty tough otherwise because of rocket splash damage.  Also one of the switches is not in the pillar.  Oh I almost forgot, there's a teleporter that just blows you up in barrels for no reason in map 6.  Kind of terrible unless there's some clue that the red teleporter is instant death.  And even so it's a dumb way to die.  Couple other minor blemishes:

 

Spoiler

 

I did finish the wad already and really enjoyed it, lots of variety in the visuals, some very atmospheric levels, many tricky but interesting combat challenges.  Also there's that last map which is... funny.  Like pretty sure you're not supposed to beat it funny, but I tried anyhow.

 

Also I like the thread title change lol, I know you didn't want to take the easy path but I think just changing the description would be much better since I think the difficulty is fine.  But if you want to actually make things easier that's cool.  I'll upload the last vids soon, thanks.

Edited March 29, 2022 by sandwedge

[Thelokk]

5 hours ago, sandwedge said:

Kind of terrible unless there's some clue that the red teleporter is instant death.

 

Spoiler

There is. And it's in a familiar place if you got that far with the puzzle.

 

 

5 hours ago, sandwedge said:

pretty sure you're not supposed to beat it

 

You can't, but you can try and see how far you can get!

 

Thanks as always for playing! It all goes to the fix pile for the /idgames version.

 

[sandwedge]

2 hours ago, Thelokk said:

 

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There is. And it's in a familiar place if you got that far with the puzzle.

 

 

 

You can't, but you can try and see how far you can get!

 

Thanks as always for playing! It all goes to the fix pile for the /idgames version.

 

 

Wow I guess I completely blanked on the puzzle, I didn't even know there was a puzzle to be honest - it was pretty easy to figure out how to progress by just hitting things.  Dunno if it has to be more apparent but maybe see how others deal with it I guess.

 

Haha it seemed almost impossible after I cheated to look at the setup but I almost wondered if you did the math whether there was enough bfg ammo for a perfect run with amazing rng.  I dunno that would be funny as concept, to see decino attempt the "impossible" map or something

[Thelokk]

3 hours ago, sandwedge said:

 

Haha it seemed almost impossible after I cheated to look at the setup but I almost wondered if you did the math whether there was enough bfg ammo for a perfect run with amazing rng.  I dunno that would be funny as concept, to see decino attempt the "impossible" map or something

 

I did some math and I'm pretty sure the only way to potentially beat that is to somehow survive without a single shot until the archviles come out, and then get super lucky with the tracers :) 

[loveless]

played the first 4 maps last night, was pleasantly surprised by the misleading title ;)) 

have a few things to report as bugs/odditites, will post later tonight/tomorrow with some screenshots. 

nicely done, had a great time playing the opening maps!

[Thelokk]

1 hour ago, loveless said:

played the first 4 maps last night, was pleasantly surprised by the misleading title ;)) 

have a few things to report as bugs/odditites, will post later tonight/tomorrow with some screenshots. 

nicely done, had a great time playing the opening maps!

 

Thanks! Glad you enjoyed, looking forward to the bug report.

[Pistoolkip]

Great variety of short, intense maps, both in visuals and in gameplay

 

 

[Thelokk]

1 minute ago, Pistoolkip said:

Great variety of short, intense maps, both in visuals and in gameplay

 

 

 

Thanks as always, @Pistoolkip it's a first mapset and certainly has its flaws, but I gave it my best :)

[sandwedge]

 

Finally uploaded this.  Really like the back half of this, it's a cool mix of all out combat arenas and easier, atmospheric levels.  The last one was funny as after a little while I suspected it wasn't beatable but thought it would be fun to try anyway.  Excellent work.  Difficulty is definitely inconsistent as levels like Dollhouse were super easy but it was such a cool level that I thought breaking up the harder stuff sorta worked out?  Btw this is still V1 as I recorded this footage close to my first videos.  Thanks.

[Thelokk]

1 hour ago, sandwedge said:

 

Finally uploaded this.  Really like the back half of this, it's a cool mix of all out combat arenas and easier, atmospheric levels.  The last one was funny as after a little while I suspected it wasn't beatable but thought it would be fun to try anyway.  Excellent work.  Difficulty is definitely inconsistent as levels like Dollhouse were super easy but it was such a cool level that I thought breaking up the harder stuff sorta worked out?  Btw this is still V1 as I recorded this footage close to my first videos.  Thanks.

 

Thanks for the full wad playthrough! Was nice seeing you come up with ways to overcome the fights that I didn't even think about :D I definitely set out to give each level its own aesthetics, maybe I'll go the other way about if I ever get around to another mapset. The final map is actually technically beatable, but it requires to not fire a single shot until the viles come out, which... let's say requires a lot of RNG. The whole map is basically just a little random 'how far can you go' arcade style thingy. And yeah, I do have a single GZDoom map out, as well as a bunch in upcoming projects, but this pack is basically my first substantial Doom output. I have begun mapping earlier this January.

Thanks again!

[sandwedge]

1 hour ago, Thelokk said:

 

Thanks for the full wad playthrough! Was nice seeing you come up with ways to overcome the fights that I didn't even think about :D I definitely set out to give each level its own aesthetics, maybe I'll go the other way about if I ever get around to another mapset. The final map is actually technically beatable, but it requires to not fire a single shot until the viles come out, which... let's say requires a lot of RNG. The whole map is basically just a little random 'how far can you go' arcade style thingy. And yeah, I do have a single GZDoom map out, as well as a bunch in upcoming projects, but this pack is basically my first substantial Doom output. I have begun mapping earlier this January.

Thanks again!

 

I'm actually curious as to which fights I used strategies you didn't expect, because I didn't get that impression when I played.  I guess that's just good design tho, when it all feels intended and you don't feel like you're "cheesing" anything.

 

Yeah allowing all the imps to spawn sounds incredibly hard, it's actually hard to live even WHILE spamming the BFG lol.  But the fact that it's theoretically possible makes me wanna see someone submit this to decino as a viewer submission or something and see him struggle haha... though I assume any pro doomers would be put off by the extreme RNG and not bother.  As it is it's just a cool epilogue, but until I saw I only got half way it kept seeming beatable.  Don't know if anyone out there might get annoyed by reaching there and not being able to beat it, with them assuming you're supposed to.  Anyway I still have another episode where I TRIED to beat it and eventually cheated to see the setup and everything.  Not sure but I figure I'll upload it as an extra.

 

Oh just saw you said you started mapping in January, dude that is awesome!  I would never have guessed by the quality of these maps!  If you keep going I'm assuming you'll get even better, which is something for me to look forward to!

Edited April 2, 2022 by sandwedge

[Thelokk]

6 hours ago, sandwedge said:

 

 

Oh just saw you said you started mapping in January, dude that is awesome!  I would never have guessed by the quality of these maps!  If you keep going I'm assuming you'll get even better, which is something for me to look forward to!

 

 heh thanks :)

[Maribo]

Played through this on stream today, with commentary and notes being posted in the chat. My overall consensus is that most of the map concepts aren't bad ideas, but the wad itself has a lot of little things that add up (mostly awkward room or fight composition, some cases of weird lifts that can only be activated on a really specific spot, a shoot switch that looks too high to hit, mandatory(?) pixelwalk).

I do really like Map08 and the Thank You For Playing map. I think most of the issues that I point out have been pointed out before me, but I figured I should make a post just in case. Looking forward to future releases. :)

[Thelokk]

28 minutes ago, Maribo said:

Played through this on stream today, with commentary and notes being posted in the chat. My overall consensus is that most of the map concepts aren't bad ideas, but the wad itself has a lot of little things that add up (mostly awkward room or fight composition, some cases of weird lifts that can only be activated on a really specific spot, a shoot switch that looks too high to hit, mandatory(?) pixelwalk).

I do really like Map08 and the Thank You For Playing map. I think most of the issues that I point out have been pointed out before me, but I figured I should make a post just in case. Looking forward to future releases. :)

 

Thanks for playing! Will catch up with the stream. The shootable switch is actually part of a puzzle, there is a very specific way to reach its height. The pixelwalk I chalk up to my adoration for Doom Zero XD

 

 Still, I agree the wad was more of a learning experience than a magnum opus (just started mapping this year), and could really use some fine tuning, especially in my weakest spot which is the combat department; but it was way too much work to simply not share it, and the public feedback process is making me learn as much as the mapping itself. 

 

Coincidentally, my next mapset will salvage and incorporate what I feel are the strongest maps in this set (2, 7 and parts of 11), with a full reskin and fully revised combat.

Edited April 3, 2022 by Thelokk

[loveless]

ayyy i'm only a little late with my post.  i can't say that i found a lot of visual issues; i don't often look for those.  i'm playing on dsda-doom with software rendering(the lighting looked great btw) on UV. 

 

map 1, texture misalignment

 

Spoiler

 

map 3, lift can only be activated from the narrow side

Spoiler

 

map 4, gate can be walked through

Spoiler

 

map 7, HoM, nonteleporting monsters, and a stuck baron 
 

Spoiler

 

 

 

map 9, monster pit never raises(doesn't interfere with progression) and non-teleporting monsters

Spoiler

 

map 10, texture misalignment

Spoiler

 

[Thelokk]

1 hour ago, loveless said:

ayyy i'm only a little late with my post.  i can't say that i found a lot of visual issues; i don't often look for those.  i'm playing on dsda-doom with software rendering(the lighting looked great btw) on UV. 

 

map 1, texture misalignment

 

  Hide contents

 

map 3, lift can only be activated from the narrow side

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map 4, gate can be walked through

  Hide contents

 

map 7, HoM, nonteleporting monsters, and a stuck baron 
 

  Hide contents

 

 

 

 

 

 

map 9, monster pit never raises(doesn't interfere with progression) and non-teleporting monsters

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map 10, texture misalignment

  Hide contents

 

 

Thanks for the report! and lovin' the status bar mugshot btw. None of my playtesters brought up these issues with stuck /non teleporting monsters from instantly rising sectors in their DSDA testing, I'll look into it myself and see if I can replicate the issue. Thanks again!

Edit: did some testing myself and the HoM and reaising sectors (one cause of the other really) worked fine in DSDA-Doom with complevel 9, what complevel did you play on? 

Edited April 6, 2022 by Thelokk

[loveless]

15 minutes ago, Thelokk said:

did some testing myself and the HoM and reaising sectors (one cause of the other really) worked fine in DSDA-Doom with complevel 9, what complevel did you play on? 

 

cl9.  are you using opengl or software rendering?

[Thelokk]

5 hours ago, loveless said:

 

cl9.  are you using opengl or software rendering?

 

Got back from work and tried a cl9 run of those non-raising sectors with both opengl and software rendering, wasn't able to replicate the issue. I'm honestly at a loss at what could have happened in your run, same with the non-teleporting monsters in map 07. The other misalignments / passable fences issues I put in the pile for the forthcoming final version of the mapset. Thanks again for giving it a shot, glad at least the issues you encountered weren't too map breaking!

[Thelokk]

One final bump to announce that this little gal is now on /idgames - we mutually agreed our relationship has come to an end, and it's time to part ways and move on. Whatever remaining misalignments we'll chalk off to 'creative license', and wonky combat to 'creative use of mechanics'.  

Thanks to all who playtested and gave a try to the mapset, with all its flaws I think it is a success as far as what it is meant to be: my first wee 'hello, I'm thelokk, nice to meet ya'. Cacoward-worthy masterpieces will come later on.

 

A few last pointers for those who are not fed up with me yet:

 

- If you're into Doom's more horror and gory side, I kickstarted a community project! Still a few days left to signup, plenty of room available. 

- I have two standalone maps you can try: Wisdom's Carcass (UDMF) and Malkuth (Doom). Both are rejects from a larger project of mine, but I do still think they hold their own, and might net you a fifteeen minutes of entertainment.

- I have maps in pretty much all ongoing community projects up for testing (30 monsters, Maximum, Community Trunk, Theme-gawad, Morior Invictus, Pandora, and more to come...). Would love to hear what you think of them.

 

And with this, thanks again and see you ^{when my wip megawad is done... shhhh.}

Edited April 11, 2022 by Thelokk

[sandwedge]

Hey finally got around to uploading the last level, and tried to beat it (fruitlessly) while trying to figure it out.  Also here's a silly thumbnail for the memes:

 

 

Edited April 18, 2022 by sandwedge

[Thelokk]

1 hour ago, sandwedge said:

Hey finally got around to uploading the last level, and tried to beat it (fruitlessly) while trying to figure it out.  Also here's a silly thumbnail for the memes:

 

 

 

XD The leftmost archvile seems strangely... appropriate to the video's title, rofl. Thanks! And yeah, it's *mathematically* possible but the RNG required... let's just say, if you make it, it's time to buy a lottery ticket. 

[sandwedge]

Just now, Thelokk said:

 

XD The leftmost archvile seems strangely... appropriate to the video's title, rofl. Thanks! And yeah, it's *mathematically* possible but the RNG required... let's just say, if you make it, it's time to buy a lottery ticket. 

 

ROFL I didn't even think about that archvile 🤣