New megawad completed: The Crater

[DoomerCheems]

This project started in early may of this year and has finally been completed. I can finally say that I've completed my first megawad ! This 3 map megawad takes you on the journey of a marine on one of the UAC's outposts on Deimos during the demonic incursion of DOOM1. You, assisted by a handful or marines, must fight your way through hordes of demons to hopefully take control of a weapon of mass destruction that the UAC has built, in hopes of surviving the onslaught. This megawad is a single player one. It uses the doom2iwad and has been run on GZDOOM with no problems with the exception of the fps dropping a bit in parts of the third map. It also has just one difficulty. Jumping is not allowed but vertical mouse aim is allowed. It uses GZDOOM’s default compatibility options with infinitely tall monsters off.

 

Link to WAD: https://wadhosting.com/Wad/125ACDFE632D6FCB6C76F478443A7C988A6B20E6

The earlier releases of this WAD can be found on my previous posts if you are interested in it's earlier versions. 

 

This WAD really taught me that megawads can be demanding tasks. I can only imagine the time that goes into making a 32 map megawad let alone a 3 map one. This megawad focuses on  utilising interactive environments to assist you in gameplay, i.e: switches and platforms that help you kill demons. This was an interesting concept I had rarely seen in WADS and I thought it would be worthwhile to see how I could make use of this feature. The maps also have a bit of a story as well with recurring characters and an overarching story that gives each level more of a purpose and direction as opposed to the standard 'get to through all the exits to kill the big bad approach. You will notice that the levels are affected by the events of the previous one which gives each one a sense of relevance.

    

 

This WAD looks at making each level distinct in their aesthetics. They focus on the tech-base, waste facility and hell aesthetic typical of DOOM however, there are certain areas of each that divert from the dominant environmental motif as you will see in the various levels. This is done to break up the monotony of a level and create the sensation of abruptness and dissonance that is the running theme of this megawad.

 

As usual I appreciate any feedback. The monsters, difficulty and most importantly the environmental hazards are what I would like to know the most on, regarding how enjoyable they were.

Edited June 14, 2022 by DoomerCheems

[SuperPecanMan]

I played through the first level, a few things that might need to go into the post:

If jumping is required, you should probably let us know. I think it is but I might just be missing something obvious.

For the lift that gets you into the room with the marine that gives you the yellow key, this doesn't work using Doom (strict) compatibility. You should probably mention which compatibility setting you used.

 

I'm not sure if there's a way to skip or speed up the text, but I feel it can take a REALLY long time to get through the messages and continue with the gameplay.

 

I wasn't able to beat the cavern fight on my first try, but I'd like to give it another go

 

 

[DoomerCheems]

2 hours ago, SuperPecanMan said:

I played through the first level, a few things that might need to go into the post:

If jumping is required, you should probably let us know. I think it is but I might just be missing something obvious.

For the lift that gets you into the room with the marine that gives you the yellow key, this doesn't work using Doom (strict) compatibility. You should probably mention which compatibility setting you used.

 

I'm not sure if there's a way to skip or speed up the text, but I feel it can take a REALLY long time to get through the messages and continue with the gameplay.

 

I wasn't able to beat the cavern fight on my first try, but I'd like to give it another go

 

 

Is there a way to skip/fastforward dialogue? I’d like to make it run smoother and not have to write a ton of print lines in my script. Any suggestions? 

[Pistoolkip]

Interesting wad. Played and recorded it. The videos will be up in the next few days.

 

 

 

Here's some feedback:

- I enjoyed the scripted events and interactive elements. The environment keeps changing, and that really tells a story.

- the set pieces are great, and make this wad very unique, despite using all stock assets and gameplay. I in particular liked the nukage area and BFG turret.

 

- It's unclear if jumping is allowed, so I might have done some sequencebreaking. You should disable it if it's not allowed, or communicate that it is.

- I grabbed the plasma gun right at the start, but later realised that this was probably also sequence breaking. It made the fights but easier of course, I could easily deal with the Spiderdemon and some other fights.

 

Now for some improvements:

- replace the stock music asap. 

- also add some levelnames (as cwilv and mapinfo)

- The cutscenes are both long, and hard to follow because the text cuts very fast on longer lines. Is there a way to have longer sentences appear, also for longer? Otherwise, try to cut some dialogue.

- the quality of mapping and gameplay divers wildly from area to area. For example, the crater looks great, but most of the factory is just rectangular rooms with stock textures we have seen a million times before. The open door, fight some monsters in a room is also the most boring part of this wad, making map 2 the most boring part of the wad.

- the generator rooms could also use some more detailing, and I'm not sure I understand how lowering the central sector activates the generators.

- the turret at the start in the fort is a little wonky. I'm not sure what triggers it firing but I just used the plasma gun and SSG to deal with the caco's.

 

Hope this helps! Good luck if you want to improve this wad, or on your next one!

 

 

[DoomerCheems]

47 minutes ago, Pistoolkip said:

Interesting wad. Played and recorded it. The videos will be up in the next few days.

 

 

 

Here's some feedback:

- I enjoyed the scripted events and interactive elements. The environment keeps changing, and that really tells a story.

- the set pieces are great, and make this wad very unique, despite using all stock assets and gameplay. I in particular liked the nukage area and BFG turret.

 

- It's unclear if jumping is allowed, so I might have done some sequencebreaking. You should disable it if it's not allowed, or communicate that it is.

- I grabbed the plasma gun right at the start, but later realised that this was probably also sequence breaking. It made the fights but easier of course, I could easily deal with the Spiderdemon and some other fights.

 

Now for some improvements:

- replace the stock music asap. 

- also add some levelnames (as cwilv and mapinfo)

- The cutscenes are both long, and hard to follow because the text cuts very fast on longer lines. Is there a way to have longer sentences appear, also for longer? Otherwise, try to cut some dialogue.

- the quality of mapping and gameplay divers wildly from area to area. For example, the crater looks great, but most of the factory is just rectangular rooms with stock textures we have seen a million times before. The open door, fight some monsters in a room is also the most boring part of this wad, making map 2 the most boring part of the wad.

- the generator rooms could also use some more detailing, and I'm not sure I understand how lowering the central sector activates the generators.

- the turret at the start in the fort is a little wonky. I'm not sure what triggers it firing but I just used the plasma gun and SSG to deal with the caco's.

 

Hope this helps! Good luck if you want to improve this wad, or on your next one!

 

 

Thanks for the feedback. Hope you enjoyed it. The play through was quite appreciated too. You’re right in the video, jumping isn’t allowed. I’ve updated the info at the top. When you grabbed the plasma secret at the start that wasn’t sequence breaking. You can run along the lowering platform or on the zombies’ heads to get it.

 

I haven’t used slade or any other of those editors for sound and aesthetic features but I need to look into it.

 

I wanted each level to be distinct in its design and play style. I wanted map2 to contrast map1 in terms of its pace and layout while map 3 is just a mixture of the chaotic openness of map 1 with the enclosed neat factory setting of map2. That way it breaks up the monotony  of the WAD. 
 

I wanted that generator room to simulate the action of aliveness so I figured getting stuff to move was a way to do it and also to give you the batteries only after you press the switch.

 

The turret is triggered by a linedef when a monster walks over it. The red floor texture next to the door marks where it is.