[MBF21] Sepia

[Petyan]

IWAD: DOOM2.WAD

Tested with: DSDA-Doom, GZDoom 4.10.0

MAP Format: MBF21

Difficulty settings: Yes.

Co-op: Co-op starts and berserks only.

 

Sepia is a 34-map megawad (which started as a NaNoWadMo project) with maps ranging from lighter brown shade to darker brown shade. The mapset is mainly targeting DSDA-Doom (Woof should also handle it, but it wasn't tested), but GZDoom should work for the most part as well (use it at your own risk still, there might be more issues than i found).

 

The mapset is divided into 4 episodes with themes variying from the trench warfare of the WW1 to abstract solid-colored places in the void. Difficulty varies as well, with the wad starting fairly tame, but getting progressively harder both in movement department (episode 3 being heavy on the plaftoming side) and in combat department (episode 4 being heavy on the slaughter side).

 

Also, it is important to note, that the secret level slots are non-standard and each episode has it's own secret level. The intermission text screens bear no actual meaning, but they do mark the levels that have the said secret exits.

 

And lastly, i will give a small warning - please take breaks while playing this, the palette can be taxing on the eyes.

Some screenshots:

Spoiler

Credits:

Spoiler

Playtesters:

@Ravendesk @brendondle @Napsalm @kvothesixstring @Master Medi @finnks13 @Meowgi @JCD @Vile @mhrz @BFGandorf @TheLoneliness

Also thanks @deathz0r for having eagle eye and @dashiefrickintyan for the HUD idea.

@Master Medi for making MAP31.

@Meowgi for making MAP32.

@brendondle for making MAP33.

@Ravendesk for making MAP34.

Music (most of which is taken from vgmusic and modarchive):

Title: Gnossinesse no.1 by Eric Satie (sequenced by oguri)

MAP01: Front Mission 3 - Lukav 1 (sequenced by Thomash Lee)

MAP02: Touhou 8 - Illusionary Night ~ Ghostly Eyes (sequenced by SONARLE)

MAP03: Front Mission 3 - Memory - Alisa (sequenced by Thomash Lee)

MAP04: Touhou 11 - Lullaby of Deserted Hell (sequenced by akira)

MAP05: Metal Gear Solid - Cavern (sequenced by Jay Reichard)

MAP06: Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty - Reminiscence (sequenced by James Flynn)

MAP07: Front Mission 3 - Base Walkthrough (sequenced by Thomash Lee)

MAP08: Daggerfall - Dungeon (no sequncer info :( )

MAP09: Front Mission 3 - Jungle (sequenced by Thomash Lee)
MAP10: Golden Sun: The lost age - Airs Rock (sequenced by Aevin )
MAP11: Ilya Alekseevich Shatrov - On the hills of Manchuria (no sequncer info :( )
MAP12: Castelvania aria of sorrow - inner quaters ( sequnced by Jorge D. Fuentes )
MAP13: Plant vs. Zombies - Moongrains (sequenced by  PATCHES HTF)
            Phoenix Wright - Ace Attorney - Cornered (sequnced by Thefriendlyumbrella)
MAP14: Touhou 14.5 - Last Occultism ~ Esotericist of the Present World (sequnced by Kitaichi Rei)

MAP15: William Petiot - Maudit chrono
MAP16: a.r.i.o.s o.f d.e.f.e.a.t - cluedo de diapir
MAP17: Blackspawn - Dreamlike Silence
MAP18: T.Smedback - withnail_i
MAP19: ? - GRYPHON (not entirely sure who is the author in the modarchive)
MAP20: mpxvm - you and me
MAP21: Touhou 15 - A World of Nightmares never seen before (arranged by Kitaichi Rei)

MAP22: Castelvania aria of sorrow - The Arena (sequnced by Jorge D. Fuentes)

MAP23: Front mission 3 - Agression (sequenced by Thomash Lee)

MAP24: Aram Khachaturyan - Waltz from masquarade suite (no sequencer info :( )

MAP25: ? - Fazed dreamer (no author on modarchive :( )

MAP26: klf - Field of roses

MAP27: Touhou 17 - Joutounin of ceramics ( sequenced by hisaraito)

MAP28: Touhou 11 - Solar Sect of Mystic Wisdom ~ Nuclear Fusion (no sequencer info :( )

MAP29: Gargoyle - Surreal dream

MAP30: Touhou 10 - The Primal Scene of Japan the Girl Saw (sequenced/arranged by rongns_2)

MAP31: Cave Story - Final Battle (sequenced by Masterlink)
MAP32: Ib - memory (sequenced by thommiest thom)

MAP33: DoDonPachi Maximum - Town in upheaval

MAP34: Gargoyle - Hidden Forest

Final screen: Ib - memory (sequenced by thommiest thom)

Intermission: HOMM3 - ai_turn1 (sequenced by Micael)

Intermission text: Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty - Rescuing Emma (sequenced by James Flynn)

Resources:

32in24tex; hexen; a few original ones, muumi's sky pack; h2h christmas; sunder

Known bugs:

Spoiler

1. Broken scrolling floors in early dsda-doom versions which breaks timed events in most maps.

2. It's possible to get softlocked in crusher section in MAP17, be careful.

3. MAP33 is practically unplayable in GZDoom, MAP18 and MAP27 lag significantly in GZDoom.

In general using gzdoom might break things in maps in different ways, gzdoom testing was a bit sloppy, so use it at your own risk.

Any mods that use true-colored assets and any mods that come with their own palette will break the palette of the wad, which will tone down the atmosphere significantly.

/idgames link: https://www.doomworld.com/idgames/levels/doom2/Ports/megawads/sepia

Download link: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1JzbELo9EwcJW5OmFryXgaeP1lCQB_a3a/view?usp=share_link

Edited December 13, 2023 by Petyan
final_final(final(final)); added bugs

[Meowgi]

YES! Congrats on the release!

[kvothesixstring]

Hell yeah, this set was really fun to play. Glad to see a public release and looking forward to more in the set.

 

[Master Medi]

Now this, is very good shit brother

[dashiefrickintyan]

epic<3

[Walter confetti]

Seen the progress of this mod on the Discord channel, I'm really curious to play this one!

[fuGue_tv]

Woah, looks spooky. I like

[Peccatum Mihzamiz]

Beautiful!

[Krecikdwamiljony]

Overall:

Palette makes things much harder to see (e.g. I learned where the cyber in map one is by eating its rocket I didn't notice).

Pain palette is even worse, taking any non-minor damage makes you virtually blind. Turns out sepia-screen gaming is even worse than red-screen gaming.

The theme and how the maps plug into each other in a sort of a story is cool as heck (also the minefield concept), but unfortunately often causes the gameplay to devolve into a corridor/door shooter, especially in map02 and the first part of map03 so far.

 

Map01:

The entrance to the other bunker looks silly:

Spoiler

The entire ambush at the end can be entirely neutered by just walking back out the room. Same goes for the imps before that, I guess.

I couldn't find the secret despite humping and punching "all" the walls and I don't think I'd ever notice it without looking at the map in doombuilder.

 

Map02:

Music pauses before (I assume) looping.

Found the secret this time.

 

Map03:

Died to the pain palette in the dark key fight.

Died to the cyber - the trench maze is pretty brutal, there isn't much cover and even that isn't easily found.

Found the megasphere easily, it's nicely presented, found the berserk in the end.

 

Map04:

It has a bit of an ammo situation unlike all previous maps, so I assume using the berserk is mandatory.

Found the supercharge easily and that's the only thing that kept me alive during what came after.

Found the secret fight eventually - it's pretty cool.

 

And that's it for today (European timezone).

[Petyan]

1 hour ago, Krecikdwamiljony said:

The entire ambush at the end can be entirely neutered by just walking back out the room. Same goes for the imps before that, I guess. 

This is MAP01, so i decided to leave it relatively easy.

1 hour ago, Krecikdwamiljony said:

Music pauses before (I assume) looping.

Thanks for mentioning that, seems like it's fixed now. (also fixed the sky, the link in the OP-Post is updated)

Regarding ammo issues - maybe i made the maps starting with map04 a bit too tight on ammo (i guess my tyson running expierence spoke), not sure if i'm going to change that for UV, but will definitely throw in more for HMP and HNTR once i implement them.

[EPICALLL]

O_O

[TheShep]

a real who's who of doom streamers in here haha. i'll play it eventually.

[David Asaad]

I love the palette tint in this bro. It does great for the atmosphere. Was fun!

[pooplord01]

sick wad 

[Vortale]

Fun set with fun fights! Big fan of the palette too!

Can't wait for more in the future!

[LadyMistDragon]

This is honestly some truly unique stuff. The brown aesthetic may be butt-ugly but the combat really sells the package.

 

One thing I did notice is that the last room in Map 01 seemed a fair bit smaller than necessary. Maybe the RL was a trap, but am I correct in assuming you're supposed to use it as opposed to the chaingun?

lmd_sepia.zip

[phoo]

Looks really interesting! I'll have to give this a play.

[Petyan]

Thanks for the demos, though i have noticed that you used the wrong complevel, the place with the minefield sign on map03 supposed to insta-kill you.

3 hours ago, LadyMistDragon said:

The brown aesthetic may be butt-ugly but the combat really sells the package.

I guess my priority was atmosphere -> combat -> geometry/looks, so i count that as a success.

3 hours ago, LadyMistDragon said:

Maybe the RL was a trap, but am I correct in assuming you're supposed to use it as opposed to the chaingun? 

Yeah, it's a trap, you should use the RL, but any weapon would work, fight is pretty easy.

Spoiler

Also regarding the cyber in map01 - he's supposed to be releasable and die on the mines - but i guess you played on the wrong complevel anyway :D

 

[LadyMistDragon]

11 hours ago, Petyan said:

Thanks for the demos, though i have noticed that you used the wrong complevel, the place with the minefield sign on map03 supposed to insta-kill you.

I guess my priority was atmosphere -> combat -> geometry/looks, so i count that as a success.

Yeah, it's a trap, you should use the RL, but any weapon would work, fight is pretty easy.

  Hide contents

Also regarding the cyber in map01 - he's supposed to be releasable and die on the mines - but i guess you played on the wrong complevel anyway :D

 

Oh right, 09 as opposed to 21 - I think I see what you mean.

[ryiron]

Loving the whole vibe of this wad. The colour palette, the music, the trench warfare, clever use of mbf21 features, everything. Playlist of uv-maxes for maps 1-4 below. Favourite fight so far is the secret cyber fight in map04, though I think it locks the player in for slightly too long.

 

 

[Petyan]

8 hours ago, ryiron said:

Playlist of uv-maxes for maps 1-4 below.

Thanks for checking them out, though map04 doesn't have a video for some reason.

8 hours ago, ryiron said:

Favourite fight so far is the secret cyber fight in map04, though I think it locks the player in for slightly too long.

I've been debating if i should do something about it, i have a few ideas on how to make it better.

[ryiron]

1 hour ago, Petyan said:

Thanks for checking them out, though map04 doesn't have a video for some reason.

 

Oops, youtube paused the upload for some reason. Fixed now, though the hd version is still processing.

[Spendoragon]

Good brother shit. I dig the aesthetic you chose and the midis. Would love to see more.

[ryiron]

Full playlist now uploaded above. Had a lot of fun with this.

[sandwedge]

Hey I had a lot of fun with this one, caught my eye with the theme so I love the idea and it delivered pretty well on its premise.  I was actually expecting it to have a bit of a darker atmosphere so was surprised when it didn't, yet the levels evoked the theme really well.  Probably my favourite was no man's city as it had a very moody feel.  Other than that these were just some fun, short, punchy levels.  Occasionally there was some challenge identifying enemies and projectiles with everything sepia toned but I didn't have too much trouble with that.  Overall really liked it and looking forward to more episodes!

 

 

Edited November 13, 2022 by sandwedge

[Petyan]

Well, a month has passed, which means it's right the time to post episode 2.

After going through the trenches for the duration of the whole episode you end up deep underground.

Explore the caves, ancient castles and fancy mansions, as well as some collapsed defences from above the ground.

Some screenshots:

Spoiler

Also there are a few minor cosmetic changes in ep1 (mostly texture alignemt/visibility changes)

Edited December 1, 2022 by Petyan

[Hasamnas]

I don't know if there's a problem with the version of DSDA-doom that I'm using, but a lot of fights don't work, for example the walls in the secret fight in map 04 or the rl fight in map 08 won't lower after they're done, so I have to idclip to continue.

[Petyan]

4 minutes ago, Hasamnas said:

I don't know if there's a problem with the version of DSDA-doom that I'm using, but a lot of fights don't work, for example the walls in the secret fight in map 04 or the rl fight in map 08 won't lower after they're done, so I have to idclip to continue.

There is an issue with scrolling floors on pre 0.24 versions of DSDA for some reason, i forgot to list that in the op-post (will do now!), thanks for mentioning that.

[Hasamnas]

Just now, Petyan said:

There is an issue with scrolling floors on pre 0.24 versions of DSDA for some reason, i forgot to list that in the op-post (will do now!), thanks for mentioning that.

Started using the new version and yeah, now it works. Aside from that hiccup this wad has been pretty solid so far.

[Petyan]

Well, yet another month passes (well, a little bit more than a month, but time is a social construct anyway), so it's a perfect opportunity to post episode 3.

Touching whatever that thing was at the end of episode 2 has sent you to... somewhere different.

In a world devoid of almost everything but solid brown colors, rare switches and rare exit signs.

Make your way through this strange dimension inspired by post-modernist and avant-garde works.

Some screenshots:

Spoiler

Spoiler

Please, keep in mind, that if you're not a big fan of platforming and fights centered around platforming, i'd recommend waiting until i'm done with difficulty settings.

Also the secret map will come at a later date for this episode.