Pro Hac Vice - My first published map - Vanilla compatible

[SuperGiantNinjaYeti]

Hello!
In my years of playing Doom I've also played a lot with editing tools, but I never got the motivation to actually make a proper map until recently.
This level started from the idea of using the monster spawner outside of map30. More specifically, using it in a way that benefits from its inability to telefrag outside of map30. So after thinking of one way to use it in a fight I built a map around it.

 

Name: Pro Hac Vice
Map Format: Vanilla compatible
Ports Tested: Chocolate Doom 3.0.1, PrBoom+ 2.6.1um, ZDoom 2.7.1, GZDoom g4.5.0 and Doom2 v1.9 in DOSBox 0.74-3
IWAD: Doom 2
Map: MAP01
Music: Night Waves from Raptor: Call of the Shadows, composed by Matt Murphy
Gameplay: Single play
Difficulty Settings: Yes
Multiplayer Placement: Yes, but not tested
Build Time: About 2 months of very discontinuous work
Requirements: No jumping nor crouching. Freelook is okay, I guess
Known bugs:
- If you don't use a limit removing port, you may see some HOM when looking across the bigger rooms because of the drawsegs.
- There's also one area where a visplane overflow may occur, but I've only been able to trigger it by playing with the largest screen size, the one that hides the status bar. I managed to reduce the visplanes from the top of the bookshelves in the starting area, but it is still so close to the limit I'm not confident in it being 100% crash proof. However, it does seem safe after more careful playtesting.

- The last room won't work as intended in ZDoom based ports and any other that allows monsters to telefrag outside of map30, but it is still playable nonetheless. Edit: An Options lump has been added to take care of this in Eternity Engine.

 

Screenshots

Spoiler

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Download link (updated)

 

Old version

 

Spoiler

 

 

Edited November 23, 2022 by SuperGiantNinjaYeti
new version

[watto3699]

That was a surprisingly interesting idea for a map. Felt like I was on the clock to prevent too many monsters from spawning.

I played on GZDoom and didn't any of the bugs you mentioned.

[fuzzytrick]

Just (almost) finished the map: I played in both Crispy and Eternity Engine. The first impression is fabulous, visuals strike you immediately in the first room and the music fits with the atmosphere. One aspect I loved was the verticality throughout the entire map. Gameplay was fun, ammo was a bit on the 'not enough' side, but I managed just fine with the secrets.

However, I could just not find the progression clear enough to be able to actually beat it.

Spoiler

I don't understand how the final room should properly behave. My first playthrough was on Crispy Doom, and when I got there, there were 2 rows with tons of monsters spawned on top of eachother, essentially creating a wall. They were static, and even after shotting them, they would not react.

 

In my confusion I thought I should try another sourceport - booted up Eternity and when I got to the same room again, some monsters were still standing, many were dead, but they would react to the player by moving and attacking.

From what you said about the telefragging aspect, I gather the Crispy Doom behavior was the correct one. If so, how should one tackle the enemies there? In my runs I could only find 5/6 secrets, and I assume the last one has the yellow key for the BFG there and thus making it easier, but if not, the point is to make the cyberdemon kill them all? All throughout I was thinking I must've missed something, because I had one more secret left and thought either the lava cavern, the area behind the blue switch bars, or the hell knight cage door must be it and must be accessible, but I guess not. (I still don't know where the last secret is)

 

Either way, congratulations on the release, it's an intriguing package overall. Can't wait to see other projects from you.

 i giggled at the how to pronounce link

Edited November 15, 2022 by fuzzytrick

[SuperGiantNinjaYeti]

7 hours ago, watto3699 said:

That was a surprisingly interesting idea for a map. Felt like I was on the clock to prevent too many monsters from spawning.

I played on GZDoom and didn't any of the bugs you mentioned.

Glad to know it worked well for you! Maybe I didn't test the correct compatibility options in my GZDoom.

 

6 hours ago, fuzzytrick said:

Just (almost) finished the map: I played in both Crispy and Eternity Engine. The first impression is fabulous, visuals strike you immediately in the first room and the music fits with the atmosphere. One aspect I loved was the verticality throughout the entire map. Gameplay was fun, ammo was a bit on the 'not enough' side, but I managed just fine with the secrets.

However, I could just not find the progression clear enough to be able to actually beat it.

  Reveal hidden contents

I don't understand how the final room should properly behave. My first playthrough was on Crispy Doom, and when I got there, there were 2 rows with tons of monsters spawned on top of eachother, essentially creating a wall. They were static, and even after shotting them, they would not react.

 

In my confusion I thought I should try another sourceport - booted up Eternity and when I got to the same room again, some monsters were still standing, many were dead, but they would react to the player by moving and attacking.

From what you said about the telefragging aspect, I gather the Crispy Doom behavior was the correct one. If so, how should one tackle the enemies there? In my runs I could only find 5/6 secrets, and I assume the last one has the yellow key for the BFG there and thus making it easier, but if not, the point is to make the cyberdemon kill them all? All throughout I was thinking I must've missed something, because I had one more secret left and thought either the lava cavern, the area behind the blue switch bars, or the hell knight cage door must be it and must be accessible, but I guess not. (I still don't know where the last secret is)

 

Either way, congratulations on the release, it's an intriguing package overall. Can't wait to see other projects from you.

 i giggled at the how to pronounce link

Thanks for the feedback!

Spoiler

The Crispy behavior is indeed the intended one. To go for 100% kills, you would most likely need to rely on the cyberdemon or the BFG to kill at least the 3 arachnotrons that are initially there. But if you just want to exit the level, it is possible to rush there, kill one arachnotron with the SSG and squeeze through the gap.

Neither the BFG nor the yellow key itself are tagged as secrets. When you trigger the secret on top of the bookshelf close to the blue bars, the yellow key becomes accessible nearby. I'm guessing the missing secret is either one close to the start or the one you can get to after the two cacodemons are released.

 

[Ravendesk]

Cool map, I really enjoyed the verticality and the platforming secrets. The final gimmick is also very funny. I think the combat is a bit dull in the first half of the map, but the second half is a lot of fun. And it's also fun to just run though the map. 

 

I wonder if these are accidental things or conscious decisions?

1. Baron placement that messes up your RL autoaim when firing at icon if sin (see demo).

2. Cyber being on the same level as icon of sin, so he can hit it with rockets and map can be done pacifist (although it's incredibly annoying).

3. Red key being completely optional for progression and even for backtracking.

 

Anyway, here is a low-effort uv-speed demo (there are other skips that are a bit annoying so I didn't do them): phv-00041.zip

[SuperGiantNinjaYeti]

Thanks for the demo @Ravendesk! It was fun watching someone else play my map.

Points 2 and 3 were totally conscious decisions, but 1 was an accident I noticed halfway through and made me go "that's funny", so I left it in.

[fuzzytrick]

Went back and actually finished the map, found the last secret and even the damned yellow key that gave me trouble before. Even with this being my 3rd playthrough, I still had a blast.

 

I just wanted to say one more thing:

Spoiler

While the monsters forming a barrier in the final room is intended, these adjacent rooms stockpile monsters that have no other purpose than making noise:

I guess their purpose is to fill the room and attack the player through the window/gap, but they just remain static. On the source-port that had telefragging enabled they would do just that.

 

[SuperGiantNinjaYeti]

4 hours ago, fuzzytrick said:

I just wanted to say one more thing:

  Reveal hidden contents

While the monsters forming a barrier in the final room is intended, these adjacent rooms stockpile monsters that have no other purpose than making noise:

I guess their purpose is to fill the room and attack the player through the window/gap, but they just remain static. On the source-port that had telefragging enabled they would do just that.

 

 

Oh, about those:

Spoiler

They are primarily to prevent the main room from saturating too quickly. I did consider having them spawn right in front of the windows to have them attack, but since I couldn't reliably prevent them from stacking there too I ended up moving them out of the player's view. And I liked the noises, so I didn't move the spawn spots further away from the playable area.