Never Come Back - boom-compatible map [/idgames release!]

[wxndxx]

Your ship has run aground and you have gone to the nearest island. You must find a way to get out of here and never come back.

Screenshots:

Spoiler

 

 

 

 

 

• 10-15 mins long
• -complevel 9
• Doom II as IWAD
• Difficulty settings implemented (I strongly recommend you to try HMP first)
• Platforming is easier on HNTR
• Stock Doom II textures only
• Transparency have to be enabled
• UV/HMP-max friendly

 

Download here:

https://www.doomworld.com/idgames/levels/doom2/Ports/m-o/ncb

 

Enjoy.

Edited September 2, 2022 by wxndxx

[galileo31dos01]

Pretty cool map! Played on HMP and it did, indeed, hurt me plenty.

 

Visually the view of the castle at the beginning was my favorite - probably a bit too bright in general for happening at nighttime, though that's a minor gripe that grew from my own mapping. I liked how it encouraged to use the chainsaw actively regardless of risks, not just for the first trap but if I wanted to finnish off some remaining imps or whatever I could go for it. Both skull key setups were fine, I personally liked the RK more, had good combo with pinkies/PE/archvile in a timer. I wasn't all that sure about the max pain effect in the "underblood" area (it just came to mind I was beneath the sea of blood!), but things seemed well calculated in the end -- that is, baring in mind suits might leak too frequently, in which case you gotta hurry up the cleanup. Finishing on the boat capped off the experience.

 

Thanks for sharing!

[LadyMistDragon]

The blood cave  area annoyed me until I figured out where there were rad suits. Last area SUCKED however. It's fine, but you can tell by the end I was getting tired of cramped spaces. And yes, I rewinded a fair bit.

lmd_neverrrr.zip

[wxndxx]

On 8/16/2022 at 1:54 AM, galileo31dos01 said:

Pretty cool map! Played on HMP and it did, indeed, hurt me plenty.

 

Visually the view of the castle at the beginning was my favorite - probably a bit too bright in general for happening at nighttime, though that's a minor gripe that grew from my own mapping. I liked how it encouraged to use the chainsaw actively regardless of risks, not just for the first trap but if I wanted to finnish off some remaining imps or whatever I could go for it. Both skull key setups were fine, I personally liked the RK more, had good combo with pinkies/PE/archvile in a timer. I wasn't all that sure about the max pain effect in the "underblood" area (it just came to mind I was beneath the sea of blood!), but things seemed well calculated in the end -- that is, baring in mind suits might leak too frequently, in which case you gotta hurry up the cleanup. Finishing on the boat capped off the experience.

 

Thanks for sharing!

 

Thank you! Glad to hear that you liked it

 

8 hours ago, LadyMistDragon said:

The blood cave  area annoyed me until I figured out where there were rad suits. Last area SUCKED however. It's fine, but you can tell by the end I was getting tired of cramped spaces. And yes, I rewinded a fair bit. 

lmd_neverrrr.zip

 

Thanks for the demo!

I definitely need to clarify in the topic for transparency to be enabled.

It's okay if you use rewind.

[StodgyAyatollah]

Was a bit wary with the platforming and chainsaw at the start but there's some good stuff in this one, particularly the first half. Took the advise and played on HMP and it was a good challenge for me. May revisit it on UV some time. Enjoyed both the key challenges and the first big fight. Did savescum through a few parts, mostly the last half. Not fond of cramped peekaboo corners but the end was a cool set piece and I enjoyed the overall theme/story. Can't say as much about the radsuit arena. An interesting idea but felt lackluster to me, especially after everything that came before it. Could have lived without it. Overall though I enjoyed it quite a bit. 

[ryiron]

I did some early play testing on this playing on UV, and then IMTYD. I gave the latest release a go on HMP, but I'm still terrible at platforming. The entry with the chainsaw isn't too bad, but I fell off the platforms in the dark room with the distant mancubus (cyber on UV) way too many times. The mancubus wasn't even really bothering me, I was just falling off of my own accord :-).

 

I like the overall story this map tells, the use of vanilla textures is clever, and the music choice is perfect. I actually quite like the entrance part forcing the player to use the chainsaw. It's not particularly friendly to blind play-throughs, but then neither is the rest of the map :-). The first big fight with the spiders and imp horde is fun, and the ammo scarcity here forces the player to keep moving. It's maybe a little too on the scarce side though, as a few times I ended up auto switching to the chainsaw. On UV I found the combination of scare rocket ammo and duel arch-viles with low cover/imp mob to be pretty overwhelming.

 

The underwater section is pretty brutal since the player is on a forced time limit due to the damaging floor, and if the demons don't get you the leaky rad suit will. Good use of ammo scarcity/forced player movement again with the cell pack island, however not finding the secret backpack makes this area even more brutal.

 

The ending was a bit anti-climatic for me since you fall back to just taking on one enemy at a time after a pretty hectic slaughter battle. 

[wxndxx]

On 8/18/2022 at 3:37 PM, StodgyAyatollah said:

Was a bit wary with the platforming and chainsaw at the start but there's some good stuff in this one, particularly the first half. Took the advise and played on HMP and it was a good challenge for me. May revisit it on UV some time. Enjoyed both the key challenges and the first big fight. Did savescum through a few parts, mostly the last half. Not fond of cramped peekaboo corners but the end was a cool set piece and I enjoyed the overall theme/story. Can't say as much about the radsuit arena. An interesting idea but felt lackluster to me, especially after everything that came before it. Could have lived without it. Overall though I enjoyed it quite a bit. 

Glad you like it!

11 hours ago, ryiron said:

I did some early play testing on this playing on UV, and then IMTYD. I gave the latest release a go on HMP, but I'm still terrible at platforming. The entry with the chainsaw isn't too bad, but I fell off the platforms in the dark room with the distant mancubus (cyber on UV) way too many times. The mancubus wasn't even really bothering me, I was just falling off of my own accord :-).

 

I like the overall story this map tells, the use of vanilla textures is clever, and the music choice is perfect. I actually quite like the entrance part forcing the player to use the chainsaw. It's not particularly friendly to blind play-throughs, but then neither is the rest of the map :-). The first big fight with the spiders and imp horde is fun, and the ammo scarcity here forces the player to keep moving. It's maybe a little too on the scarce side though, as a few times I ended up auto switching to the chainsaw. On UV I found the combination of scare rocket ammo and duel arch-viles with low cover/imp mob to be pretty overwhelming.

 

The underwater section is pretty brutal since the player is on a forced time limit due to the damaging floor, and if the demons don't get you the leaky rad suit will. Good use of ammo scarcity/forced player movement again with the cell pack island, however not finding the secret backpack makes this area even more brutal.

 

The ending was a bit anti-climatic for me since you fall back to just taking on one enemy at a time after a pretty hectic slaughter battle. 

Thanks for testing, it helped me a lot!

Yes, it requires some routing, especially on UV. I think it makes the map deeper in terms of gameplay.

As for the last section, I agree that after a slaughter fight it is strange, but according to the plot, it is necessary to fight on the ship. Maybe I'm not good enough at making consistent gameplay lines, but this was my first map overall :) I definetly fix that kind of mistakes in the next project.

[wxndxx]

Now available on /idgames!

Link updated.