Caffeine Injection! (5 levels ep, mbf21)(finally in idgames)

[Misty]

Caffeine Injection is 5 maps long episode for Doom II done between 2020-2022. It's made from various projects I couldn't finish in time or left when I changed my mind. I didn't want to waste those levels, so I compiled them in one small ep.
Pistol start is the intended experience. 

 

Main information:

 

*Iwad: Doom II

*Map01- Map05+end map

*Format: MBF21(previously boom format), complevel 21

*Tested with: DSDA Doom, Gzdoom, Eternity Engine.

*Skill settings: included

*Download link: https://www.doomworld.com/idgames/levels/doom2/Ports/a-c/caf_inj

 

Screenshots:

Spoiler

 

Map list:

MAP01: Untitled Yet

MAP02: One Of Those Days

MAP03: Wrong Timeline

MAP04: Reality Blender

MAP05: Wiremaster Ritual

MAP06: No More Caffeine(end map)

 

Music list:

Spoiler

MAP01:"Red Soil Swampy" from Super Metroid SNES seq. by JILost

MAP02:"Corrugator" by Alfonzo

MAP03: "The Sinister Maze" Bjorn Lynne (alias Dr.Awesome) 

http://www.team17.com/~bjorn

MAP04:"Alien Conflict" from Perfect Dark seq. by JoannaFan

MAP05:"Agitated Robotic" by IN1_ACMM

MAP06:Dial-up for Murder "Astral Grave"

Intermission music: Dial-up for Murder "Panic! At The Drive-Thru"

Title music: Gyakuten Saiban 3 Godot's Theme by Jayster

 

For texture credit list, please refer credits.txt file.

 

Special thanks to: playtesters Bridgeburner, DMPhobos, insane_gazebo, KeaganDunn, TheEvilGrin and many others.

 

Thank you everyone who will play this, have a nice day!

Edited September 2, 2022 by Misty

[DMPhobos]

Congratulations on the release!

 

This was a fun set to test, and it's good to see it finally released

[OverflowingMocha]

Congrats on the release of this, got up to map03 and so far it's very fun! Will definetly give my thoughts on this once I fully finish this.

[ScrappyMcDoogerton]

Here is a playthrough of the first 2 maps I enjoyed.

 

 

[Misty]

I'm glad you enjoyed first 2 levels! I'll check them out a bit later, I hope, rest of the levels won't disappoint. 
 

 

[Not Jabba]

Finished it. Your stuff is always excellent. Playing on HMP, it always seems to hit this perfect sweet spot of feeling tense and energetic but not being stressful. With Caffeine Injection, I noticed that there are almost always good ways to retreat without it feeling like you're resorting to grindy camping; there's a very comfortable amount of space, but the space feels dynamic, and you can finish off enemies quickly without a lot of extended cleanup. Very nice looking maps and a fun palette too.

[Misty]

Thank you for your playthrough! You always notice those little details in other people maps. I'm happy you enjoyed this little project, seems my time and effort paid off in the end. Not going lie, waiting for feedback makes me a bit anxious.

 

There are few couple projects I want to release in the upcoming future, but as for now, let's enjoy this one small achievement. 

[Vile]

Quite a fun set, thanks for making it and for popping in while I was playing it. :)

[Biodegradable]

Awesome job putting out this map set, Misty! I remember playtesting some of these maps back on the Hell Forge server. It's great to see them up on DW now. :^) 

Edited August 7, 2022 by Biodegradable

[Misty]

Thank you both! 

 

I knew that I was forgetting someone, my memory isn't that good lately. Time flies fast and it's hard to keep track of things happening around. 

[Bridgeburner56]

Awesome to see this finally out 😁 

[TheMagicMushroomMan]

I love the title "Wiremaster Ritual". It's good to see Dial-up for Murder get some love, too. I'll check this out when I'm feeling better.

[LadyMistDragon]

So.....just tried out the first map of this and I won't lie, the YK trap really got me good. Like it's about as lamely predictable for someone to spring those before you grab the key but the shape of the room created some excellent staging. Well done! Then all the traps afterward really lived up to their potential in a way your 1000 Lines 3 map really didn't Having played several of your older maps thanks to Remilia Scarlet's recommendation, I know you can get very painful without using tons of monsters. And you didn't even have a Cyberdemon this time! Which I kind of know you like:)

[Misty]

I'm glad you like, all 4 maps are without cyberdemons, except for map05 as it's last playable map in set. 
 

Spoiler

In map05 easy skill players get one cyberdemon and mastermind at the end, medium - 2 cyberdemons( one in blue wireframe area), hard - 3(2 in blue wireframe area) + additional stuff around for challenge. Spider mastermind and cyberdemon setup in the end of level is same for everyone, except on uv you get bunch of cacodemons too.

As couple days passed, I can give a small spoiler for everyone(read if you wish to know more):
 

Spoiler

If you use automap cheat couple of times, you will get sector art stuff as easter egg at couple of levels - check map slot 02 and 05.

 

Edited August 8, 2022 by Misty

[Lucius Wooding]

Very cool set of maps, I gave them a spin and they are definitely well made and appealing. I'd have to really learn them better to UV max in single segment, they're a bit tough for me as is but I'm planning on stashing the wad for a rainy day. I would have dropped down in skill but it didn't seem like they were implemented, if you found the time to do so it would probably be appreciated by some. I felt like every caco and revenant had aimbot turned on so they were definitely well placed and the fights were well designed. Just wasn't my day in terms of dodging and I kept tanking big hits. There's enough health around in general but even though I could generally tell where the ambushes would come from, I'd usually take damage from most of them. Playing this will definitely give me PTSD every time I see a switch.

 

I think map 4 is probably my favorite, very cool layout and kind of abstract visuals. I initially thought you might have included inescapable pits but good on you for providing lifts at least. Also the flying enemies are really well used here since you can be flanked or cornered from most places.

 

I appreciated some of the fireblu usage as well, it seemed like you made custom variations of it and made a point to feature it and it made for some interesting looks.

 

The one possible issue I found with getting 100% kills:

Spoiler

The tag 28 trigger in map 1 can be skipped apparently? My first run I had those 6 revenants not spawn in and couldn't figure out where they were for the life of me. I must have triggered the switch from max distance without stepping into the trigger completely, once I went back there after checking the map in doombuilder it worked fine. Since you use this type of walkover switch combo frequently it might be possible in other spots as well, and a player going for all kills would probably never find them by backtracking. I don't think this came up anywhere else for me but it might benefit from just making these types of triggers a bit larger or providing a second trigger near the exit or something just in case. 

 

Anyway, very nice job and I'll probably revisit some of these when I'm playing better and want to legitimately beat a nice challenging mid size map. 

[Misty]

I added skill settings around, but I admit, they are not consistent across the levels, so some places can feel easier or harder. I plan update set and credits really soon, include fixes and improvements(taking small break from doom and mapping now). 

 

Thank you for playing it, I appreciate feedback. I'm glad it was enjoyable experience.

[nobleflame]

This looks great - will give it a try :)

[Lucius Wooding]

2 hours ago, Misty said:

I added skill settings around, but I admit, they are not consistent across the levels, so some places can feel easier or harder. I plan update set and credits really soon, include fixes and improvements(taking small break from doom and mapping now). 

 

Thank you for playing it, I appreciate feedback. I'm glad it was enjoyable experience.

I really just threw it on HMP after playing UV and played for like 45 seconds and didn't notice a difference on one map, so that's on me. I just assumed there weren't any implemented. It's kind of annoying to add them on bigger maps and difficult to judge what changes to make without feedback from a range of players so this is understandable.

[Misty]

Just tell me map slot and I'll investigate, I don't mind adjusting skills for more consistent playthrough. I want make maps fair for everyone, but still keep some challenge of course. 

[nobleflame]

Just out of interest, will this work in PRBOOM+ UMAPINFO? It only does MBF (complevel 11).

Cheers!

[Misty]

You could try test it, but I can't promise if things will work correctly. I included umapinfo lump stuff too. 

[nobleflame]

2 minutes ago, Misty said:

You could try test it, but I can't promise if things will work correctly. I included umapinfo lump stuff too. 

Cool, I'll try it in complevel 11 and 9 and see what happens.

[nobleflame]

So it looks like some aspects won't trigger unless under the MBF21 complevel. Two monster teleporters didn't activate in map01.

 

Good to know!

[Misty]

I'm glad to know that experiment was useful! I was curious for myself, since I updated in 2020-2021 made levels to new standard. 

[nobleflame]

1 minute ago, Misty said:

I'm glad to know that experiment was useful! I was curious for myself, since I updated in 2020-2021 made levels to new standard. 

 

This may well be the thing that makes me download Woof! 

 

Been using PRBoom+ UMAPINFO for a while, but it doesn't support MBF21 annoyingly.

[Misty]

Hopefully in the future they will add mbf21 support in umapinfo version of prboom+. For me dsda port was upgrade, because I was still using ancient 2.5.1.4 prboom+ port without any upgrades until january.

 

Feel free leave feedback or demos here if you will play. I planned to provide some updates this week for this set, but harsh happenings around my life doesn't allow me to focus on mapping for now. 

[galileo31dos01]

Glad to see more stuff from yours every now and then. I had quite some fun and nerve-wracking moments playing the maps, gorgeous themes, multiple surprise traps, diagonals for weird monster movement, vibrant colors contrasted by more subdued motifs between maps. The pink sky map felt familiar, I think I have checked a map or two with a similar setting before, and very sure Bridgeburner streamed the first couple maps long time ago. 

 

That said, a few observations:

 

- In map 01, in the section for the red skull, there is line 1385 which is linked to a bunch of teleporting revenants. I managed to avoid it while I flipped the switch, and had the key guardians all by myself without intruders. If the intention is to add the revs to the RK guardians, then a safer method is building a voodoo doll setup, otherwise you could summon the revs and kill them before progressing, which is alright anyways.

 

- In map 03, the hidden switch is unfortunately rendered invisible in opengl. In software you can see it though, and so it's of course a downside from choosing opengl (in reality I get better performance). Nevertheless, would you consider adding a slight tweak to the switch? 

 

- In map 05, it's possible to knock off monsters into this pit, and while you can still kill whatever is down there, perhaps some mbf21-exclusive block lines could be added? (revs seem the most susceptible of falling in there)

 

Thanks for sharing!

[Misty]

Thank you for playtesting! I'll get around those mentioned things when situation will improve for me, hopefully it won't take me too long.

 

It makes me happy that people have enjoyable experience so far, despite some things that need improvement. 

[Arsinikk]

Hey, I had the pleasure of playing this entire mapset on stream! Overall I'd say I enjoyed it... Though I think there may be a little bit too many "locking the player in" moments for my liking. I pistol started every map on UV, and a found that a few of the maps were a bit tight on ammo.

 

This may just be a "me" thing, but I found the new palette a little hard on the eyes.

 

You can see my entire playthrough here:

 

https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1557690380

 

[Misty]

Thank you for gameplay! I'll watch stream vod shortly with cup of coffee.

 

As for palette, it uses palplus. I tweaked it slightly for map04, because voidsky pink range was rather washed out. I liked how it looks, so I left it intact.