[Now on idgames!] Uroboros | A twisted journey in Boom

[Ravendesk]

Uroboros is a Boom wad with non-linear progression between levels. Each map has both normal and secret exits, leading to different next map. But there's more! It may also be absolutely random which exit you will get (however you might discover secret deterministic exits), so there are many different ways to progress through the wad. Don't be surprised that you got into map 8 after map 1. It is completely normal :)

 

Non-linear progression is controlled with UMAPINFO so make sure your source port supports it.

 

Download link: https://www.doomworld.com/idgames/levels/doom2/Ports/s-u/uroboros

 

Old versions (idk why would you need them at this point but still):

Spoiler

RC4: https://drive.google.com/file/d/15aGwV_1_s_P4oSK01vjV2p6fGTz4aM7V/view?usp=sharing

RC3: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1j93OokWt2CDlmIhGHF5z00YLvNXzkqjT/view?usp=share_link

RC2: https://drive.google.com/file/d/18QSDDGRWymi6PDmRH6glIZHGNiXg4VoE/view?usp=share_link

RC1.5: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1rneGFYO2FAfpQYGHQ6sd_lO4rGkAmkjZ/view?usp=sharing

RC1: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1l-jsGOwk2FloRocPRq5Z3j2udDrmCURG/view?usp=sharing

 

 

Uroboros consists of two episodes.
Episode 1: The Head. Begins with a fresh new game start and ends when you get to map 06. As said previously, the exact route between map 01 and map 06 is non-deterministic.

Episode 1 can be played pistol-started if you want, you will not miss out much (it will just be more difficult).

 

Episode 2: The Tail. From map 06 until one of the three endings. In this episode you might revisit levels you have already played, however with new equipment you got there, you will be able to access previously unreachable areas and find various shortcuts.

Episode 2 must be played continuously, otherwise you will not be able to progress to the final level and some of the endings.

 

Despite the fact that the wad is designed around continuous play, each map (even episode 2 maps) was playtested both continuously and pistol-started and each map can be uv-maxed with pistol start.

 

In order to incorporate this non-linearity into gameplay, plasma is replaced with a magical Scroll of Karnak. What does it do? Find out yourself :)

 

To compensate for the lack of plasma, chaingun and shotgun are buffed and you magical BFG has larger mana capacity than usual.

There are also a few changes to the enemies: Green Cyber replaces Spider Mastermind (really Green Cyber doesn't need an introduction - but just in case - it's a 1000 hp cyber), chaingunners don't drop a chaingun, they only drop bullets. Lost souls are slightly nerfed.

Please also note that cybers and barons don't count towards the kill count. However, hellknights and green cybers still do.

 

Difficulty settings are implemented and tested. UV might be pretty challenging, especially during a few difficulty spikes that the wad has, so don't hesitate to lower the difficulty (you still have time to do so during the Episode 1).

 

Have fun!

 

Technical information below:

 

Compatibility: Boom (-complevel 9). Requires UMAPINFO support. Please use a port that supports UMAPINFO, otherwise you will not be able to follow the non-linear campaign Uroboros offers.
Tested in dsda-doom, woof and GZDoom 4.8.2.
I did my best to make the wad fully compatible with GZDoom, however there are still some boom gimmicks that are not emulated fully correctly, so I strongly recommend playing Uroboros in dsda-doom/woof/prboom+umapinfo and not in ZDoom-based port. If you absolutely want to play it in GZDoom - ok, but no guarantees, play at your own risk :) Mouselook, jumping and crouching should absolutely be disabled though.

 

Map & midi list:

Spoiler

Some map names are hidden for now, so you can discover them yourself :)

 

Map 01: A Familiar Place
Midi - "True" from Silent Hill 2

Map 02: In the Hall of the Mountain Queen
Midi - "Strawberry Crisis!!" from Touhou 3: Phantasmagoria of Dim

Map 03: Where I found my friend Morte
Midi - "24" by Stuart Rynn

Map 04: Vingt mille lieues sous les grottes
Midi - Premonition. Taken from 3 Heures D'agonie II.

Map 05: The Library of Babel
Midi - "Maiden in Black" from Demon's Souls

Map 06: Karnak
Midi - "Land of Able" by Mark Klem

Map 07: [???]
Midi - "Aeschylus" by Ravendesk and Shin`ei

Map 08: Where Dolphins Cry
Midi - "Deep Ridge" from Ecco: The Tides of Time

Map 09: Bad End. [???]
Midi - "Nightmarish Waltz" from Silent Hill 4

Map 10: Good End. [???]
Midi - "Sad Theme" from Corpse Party

Map 11: True End. [???]
Midi - "True" from Silent Hill 2

Title screen - "Something Is Wrong (01)" from Corpse Party PC-98
Intermission screen - Title Screen ost from Syphon Filter 2
Intermission text screen - "Alone in the Town" from Silent Hill 2

 

Midi for Map 07 was made specifically for the wad, you can listen to it separately here:

 

 

Credits:

Spoiler

 

Textures & Sprites:
Main pack - 32in24-15_tex_v2
Some additional textures are from OTEX 1.1 by ukiro and from muumipack_v2 by Muumi.
Plus some edits of my own.

Trees sprites - supercharge_v2.9.
Lava decoration sprites - supercharge_v2.9.
BFG sprites - Raven Software (edited by Vortale, taken from The Lost Magic).

Chaingun sprites are taken from Valiant, original author is NMN.
Various other sprites - Raven Software.

Numbers for the hud are taken from The Lost Magic and recolored.

 

I will double-check and expand this list if needed before the idgames release.

I also want to credit Magnolia, POOGERS and Wormwood ]|[ - The Horror as my main Boom technological inspirations. These wads introduced me to some incredible Boom tech, which I reused, trying to build something interesting on top of it. Another big inspiration is (huge spoiler):

Spoiler

Jumpwad

 

Many thanks to @Jizzwardo for introducing me to the world of custom hud creation and sharing his template with me.

 

And of course huge credit goes to my awesome playtesters - @Billa, @Xyzzy01, @Nefelibeta and @Master Medi (and additional huge thank you to Xyzzy for showing me the problems in my horrible dehacked and fixing some of them).

 

More screenshots:

Spoiler

 

 

 

 

Edited January 9, 2023 by Ravendesk
idgames release

[Master Medi]

This is an extremely good and fun wad, thanks for asking me to playtest it. Solid 10/10

[phoo]

Looks excellent, I'll need to give this a play

[Not Jabba]

Very intriguing!

[Ravendesk]

A really quick update because I missed quite a few things during a pre-release cleanup. Nothing critical, but still some QoL improvements. Calling it 1.5 as it's too minor for RC2. Download link updated in the OP.

Changelog:

Spoiler

1. Fixed a few missing textures in map 02.

2. Fixed tons of texture misalignmens in map 08 (idk how I missed so many of them), and a few in other maps. Probably something left still, I'll keep an eye on it.

3. Fixed chainsaw frames debug leftovers. Chainsaw is never used in the wad but still if you idkfa things become weird.

4. Fixed several places where you could randomly get stuck in weird geometry in map 04 with instant fatal consequences.

5. Made it less likely that you get stuck on cacos way above your head in map04 where you can't see them. Monster count is unchanged.

6. Added missing impassable flag to some midtexture barriers in map 07.

7. Fixed a possible sequence break when revisiting map 04. I didn't lead to a softlock but it was very confusing if you accidentally do this.

 

Edited December 9, 2022 by Ravendesk

[Arsinikk]

The non-linear aspect of this wad has got me intrigued!

 

Would you say that pistol-starts are not recommended?

Nevermind, it helps to actually read the entire OP lol.

Edited December 9, 2022 by Arsinikk

[Maribo]

beep - a VOD playthrough of episode 1, because I was feeling like playing Doom today. I would urge anyone intrigued by the wad's concept to give it a try, because it is not just a wad tied together with a non-linearity gimmick. It has a lot of funky boom magic to show you, and backs it up with engaging gameplay and aesthetic design in droves.

Edited December 11, 2022 by Maribo

[Meowgi]

This was an exceptional experience. I absolutely love the concept and the execution doesn't disappoint. If you were thinking of giving this a go, dive all the way in, and don't look back. I highly recommend playing it continuous and channeling your inner Jumpwad player to find all you can in Episode 2.

 

10/10 wad; I think this has the potential to be remembered for years to come. See you at next year's cacowards, @Ravendesk

Here is my playthrough. I actually don't recommend watching more than maybe the first level if you're still blind:

 

[GarrettChan]

UV continuous with saves

Port: DSDA-Doom v0.24.3 -complevel 9

Total IGT: 1:47:33 (True Ending)

Personal Difficulty Evaluation: 3.5 (out of 5. I rated Sunlust 3.8, but I can't really tell which one is harder... maybe similar)

Personal Rating: 9.1 (out of 10)

Comments:

Spoiler

Wanted to rate 9.2, but annoyed by Map02, so sorry, subtracted 0.1 :<

Very interesting mapset with non linear progression. Map07 somehow feels like a Sunder map to me, heh. Got the True Ending, but this involves some IDDT usage because I knew I need to find the keys, but I had limited time to play yesterday, so I just used it to cut down a bit of playtime.

 

Question:

Spoiler

1. Are the maps really random? The first time I exited Map01, I went to Map02, but the second time I went to Map08. Maybe there are ways to change the outcome? Not familiar with mapping with UMAPINFO, but would be curious to know.

 

2. What the nerf of LS? It's funny that you said you nerfed it. I didn't read it until today, and I did feel they act strangely... but funnily I got hit by them more :^)

 

3. How do you get the bad ending? I saw the key usage at the end of the good ending so I went back for key hunt, but I can't think of the way of the bad ending.

 

[Ravendesk]

1 hour ago, GarrettChan said:

UV continuous with saves

Port: DSDA-Doom v0.24.3 -complevel 9

Total IGT: 1:47:33 (True Ending)

Personal Difficulty Evaluation: 3.5 (out of 5. I rated Sunlust 3.8, but I can't really tell which one is harder... maybe similar)

Personal Rating: 9.1 (out of 10)

Comments:

  Reveal hidden contents

Wanted to rate 9.2, but annoyed by Map02, so sorry, subtracted 0.1 :<

Very interesting mapset with non linear progression. Map07 somehow feels like a Sunder map to me, heh. Got the True Ending, but this involves some IDDT usage because I knew I need to find the keys, but I had limited time to play yesterday, so I just used it to cut down a bit of playtime.

 

Question:

  Reveal hidden contents

1. Are the maps really random? The first time I exited Map01, I went to Map02, but the second time I went to Map08. Maybe there are ways to change the outcome? Not familiar with mapping with UMAPINFO, but would be curious to know.

 

2. What the nerf of LS? It's funny that you said you nerfed it. I didn't read it until today, and I did feel they act strangely... but funnily I got hit by them more :^)

 

3. How do you get the bad ending? I saw the key usage at the end of the good ending so I went back for key hunt, but I can't think of the way of the bad ending.

 

 

Thanks for playing. Yeah map 02 tends to be polarizing. I regret putting it in slot 02 a little bit, but well :)

 

Regarding your questions:

Spoiler

1. Yes, they are. I used a lost soul based random generator from Magnolia with some modifications of my own to make it work better for 2-choice random instead of 3-choice. Basically when you enter the map you wake up two lost souls that instantly teleport away into two separate closets. From there they will fly in your direction. Whoever wins the race and gets to the end of closet first decides if normal or secret exit will be used. The other one gets blocked. This usually happens around 20 seconds after the start of the map.

 

In theory player's position affects the outcome, because LS fly towards you, but I think there is no meaningful way to utilize this. If you just stay in one place it's also random, because Boom starts each game with new random seed.

 

UMAPINFO does not have anything to do with randomizing exits. It only defines that, for example, normal exit leads to map 02, secret exit leads to map 08, that's all.

 

2. Oh, they just have 45hp, there is no change in their behaviour.

 

3. If you take a normal exit at the end of map 06 instead of searching for secret, you'll get a bad ending.

 

 

[GarrettChan]

@Ravendesk

 

Spoiler

Oh right, I remember those from Magnolia. I do think of maybe it's Boom's random seed to do something, but I didn't actually look at the map, so thanks for the explanation.

Lol for the LS, probably I suck at deal with them :)

 

Also lol for the normal exit of Map06. Didn't even think of taking it, haha. Those 4 Soulspheres and 4 MegaArmors at the end are a very big hint about "you need to jump around and find some stuff"... so I'd never think of taking the normal exit of it.

 

[Ravendesk]

Thanks everyone for playing, all the feedback I received (and all the footage I saw) was invaluable really.

RC2 update is here, download link in the OP is updated. The most significant changes are a few new optional areas accessible in episode 2 and reworked final fight in map 07.

 

Full change log:

Spoiler

1. Nerfed map 02 on HMP and HNTR as the difficulty was not in line with HMP/HNTR in the rest of the wad.
2. Implemented alternative ways to reach the secret and things needed for the secret in map 06.
3. Tweaked final area platform heights a bit in map 05, so they are more comfortable to move around.
4. Updated chaingun sprites, so it's more clear now that it's buffed. Credit goes to NMN.
5. Max chaingun ammo capacity increased from 200 to 300. It fires so fast that you are left without bullets immediately and chaingun ended up being less useful.
6. Cleaned up the final boss sprites a bit.
7. Coop starts are added. Nothing is balanced or tested for coop, so there are just the starts.
8. Made it possible to get out of the final arena of map 07 on continuous playthrough after the fight has ended.
9. Added a few new small ep2-only areas to map 01.
10. Added another ep2-only route to map 03.
11. Added one alternative way to get YSK in map 07.
12. Slightly reworked the way you get to the secret exit in map 04 to make it more intuitive and more rewarding. Added a new small intermediate area.
13. The final fight in map 07 is significantly reworked. It should now be better balanced and more skill-based and less random on all difficulties.
14. Overall minor changes to make better lower difficulties balancing across the wad.

15. Made BFG pillars in map 04 more visible, so it's now harder to miss bfg.

 

Edited December 14, 2022 by Ravendesk

[GarrettChan]

Spoiler

8. Made it possible to get out of the final arena of map 07 on continuous playthrough after the fight has ended.

15. Made BFG pillars in map 04 more visible, so it's now harder to miss bfg.

Lol, I should've probably reported these but I thought that's a designer's choice so I didn't question much, but yeah, I had these 2 issues.

Thanks for the update.

[gudermannian function]

I have played through halfway on HMP and it was good (especially difficulty wise MAP02). The only brutal difficulty was the Celtic Cross fight on MAP08. I think 3 Arachnotron and 1 HK is little bit too tough on that arena. My suggestion would be to change 2 arachnos and 2 HKs but I am not expert playtester. Ultimately it is decision of the mapper 

[Ravendesk]

RC3 is here. The main change is the addition of fast weapon switch. It was suggested by several people who played the earlier versions, I tried it out, and I think it really synergizes well with the scroll for the encounters that involve its usage (and in general quite pleasant to play with).

 

I have also did a lot of additional playtesting for lower difficulties and after adjusting them, I'm really happy with how HMP and HNTR play.

 

Download link in OP is updated.

 

Full change log:

Spoiler

1. Fast weapon switch.
2. Additional hmp and hntr difficulty balancing.
3. Made yellow key in map 06 more visible.
4. Made bfg platform in map 06 more visible.
5. Made some platforming parts in various maps a little more forgiving and less annoying.
6. In map 03 crushers fight, now crushers have different textures depending on what's beneath them, so you can know what to expect when crusher is still closed.
7. Miscellaneous texture fixes.

 

On 12/21/2022 at 3:31 PM, gudermannian function said:

I think 3 Arachnotron and 1 HK is little bit too tough on that arena. My suggestion would be to change 2 arachnos and 2 HKs but I am not expert playtester. Ultimately it is decision of the mapper 

Thanks for mentioning, I agree that it was more punishing than what HMP usually does in the rest of the wad, so that was adjusted in RC3.

[Ravendesk]

RC4 is here. All the changes are minor, I will push this version to idgames in several days :)

Link in the OP is updated.

 

Full changelog:

Spoiler

1. Added better nomo support for maps 02, 06 and 07 (no long lockins in nomo).
2. Replaced stock demos with actually meaningful ones (taken from my failed attempts to max some of the maps).
3. Fixed M_DOOM offsets, the image used to be corrupted under certain conditions, now its ok.
4. Fixed one of the viles waking up earlier than supposed due to nodebuilder issues in map 08.
5. Slightly reduced the amount of flying enemies in map 06 fight. I felt like they don't add much to fight intensity and on the contrary make it less fun. New balance feels better to me.
6. Removed amount of objects used for instakill floors in maps 07 and 05, should improve maps performance on weaker machines.

7. Made episode-2 routes for map 03 a little more convenient to navigate.
8. Various minor texturing fixes.

 

I have also recorded UV-MAX runs for maps that I felt required mapper's max before the final release.

Here they are:

Spoiler

 

 

 

Edited January 2, 2023 by Ravendesk

[Arwel]

This is really a great mapset, taking non-linear progression to a new level!

I'm having a lot of fun with it!

I have a question though, is it intended that some textures in map05 are plain color?
 

Spoiler

 

 

Edited January 8, 2023 by Arwel

[Ravendesk]

1 hour ago, Arwel said:

This is really a great mapset, taking non-linear progression to a new level!

I'm having a lot of fun with it!

I have a question though, is it intended that some textures in map05 are plain color?
 

  Reveal hidden contents

 

 

 

Glad you are enjoying the set.

 

Map 05 plain color texturing is indeed intended, that's just the style I have chosen for the internal area of the library. :)

[Ravendesk]

Uroboros is now on idgames!

 

Download link: https://www.doomworld.com/idgames/levels/doom2/Ports/s-u/uroboros

Also updated link in the OP.

 

Have fun!

 

[MFG38]

Goddamn, how did this one fly under my radar?!

 

The concept certainly sounds interesting. I'll put this on my stream candidate list.

[s4f3s3x]

I was intrigued immensely by the concept, then I tried map01 and from there I was sent to map08. I don't like this slaughter-style gameplay at all. I can't imagine a torture worse than being sent randomly from one carnage spot to another.

Maybe I was extremely unlucky and other levels showcase different designs, but if that's not the case, well, I'll pass on this one.

Congratulations of puttin' this one out anyway, it clearly took a lot of work and dedication.

[Ravendesk]

I was made aware that there was a possible softlock in map 03 (I introduced it in one of the later rc versions so it slipped past the playtesting unfortunately).

So I fixed it and pushed an update to idgames.

 

I tested the fix to be demo-compatible, so it doesn't desync the demos made on previous version, but just in case get the new version anyway please. Sorry for the inconvenience :)

 

Download link is the same.

Edited January 22, 2023 by Ravendesk