Crux Funestus

[isthisnametaken]

Crux Funestus (Sarbella 6): The axis of the universe.  

 

The labyrinth is a spiritual journey of the eternal soul.  

 

Following the assigned contours, back and forth around the reversing spiral.  

 

Every cardinal angle and turn of the mandala is a symbolic representation of the most ancient quest of our species. 

 

The descent of the hero into the pit, through the five elemental planes, to the center of creation. 

 

Awakening life which waits forever lifeless, and putting it to sleep again.  

 

Bringing fire into the deepening darkness, and order into timeless chaos.   

 

Taketh up thy sacred shotgun and go forth, for when you emerge victorious, a new level of cosmic consciousness will have been achieved.

 

You will never be the same after.  (But this is true of anything you do, so spend your time wisely and have fun!)

*******

Single player MAP01 for Doom2

Tested in GZDoom, but should work in anything, with or without freelook.

MIDI is "The Woodwoman" by Bathory.  (I have no idea who sequenced it.)

Textures are modified from Doom2 or made from scratch - help yourself.
 

Spoiler

Each of the blue/red skull switches lowers the floor to the next level.  The area should be cleared when you reach one of these switches, so they are good places to take a break, collect supplies, or make a save.

All secret areas have a back door so they can be reached from more than one floor.  Nothing is hidden in the automap, so they should be pretty easy to find.

Every floor has at least one (secret) way to get back up to the previous floor, so you can charge through as a hardcore marine, or escape to higher ground and bait them into infighting.

 

CF_06_08.zip

Edited January 17, 2023 by isthisnametaken
oops! The file!!!

[FEDEX]

Hi, you forget to add the wad file

[isthisnametaken]

Yes, I did :/

 

[Helm]

I really enjoyed a blind run, however it seems I should have saved my ammo for the finale, so I'll do another run at another day now with foreknowledge. This is a little bit like World Orfice in that it's quite ambient. I enjoy this sort of thing, but not everyone does. I should have gotten the message about saving ammo when the first vile wave hit and I had to clean it up with SSG and chain, but that worked out in the end. The finale though, warrants a full replay because I had to do some nonsense to get the cyber to slowly chip away at viles and those elementals blocking the exit. This is a kind of feedback, I guess: you should know that some people respond well to realizing the ammo situation at the end and dutifully go at it again. For others this sort of ammo desperation is intolerable because they play, say, with one quicksave and the situation at that point is unmanagable. 

I tested in DSDA, played and looked fine. I like the mandala, I like the high concept obviously, this is quite fun, however perhaps for this sort of theme I expected perhaps different textures? No matter. The aesthetic is strong as it is. 

I hope you make many many more maps and push the envelope more. This map reminds a bit of a very old wad I have forgotten the name of (it was kind of nondescript like "SSC", or just some initials, that's all I remember). In that map set, the architecture was kind of, if not fractalized, repeated in sets of 2 or 3 or 4, and highly symmetrical. The packs of enemies were also kind of placed in symmetries that made it guessable to know what's around the corner before you even turn the corner, that is after the first corner. 

I haven't seen any other wad attempt that, and I can't find that old set for the life of me, so I want to point at the emergent artifact here, which is the fractalized shape creates symmetries and predictabilities and that is good because the player can flow more and at least chance at the new scenario with more confidence after the repetitions. This is something to mine more, and you seem to have rediscovered that for yourself, so mine it more :P

[isthisnametaken]

Thank you for the feedback, Helm.  

 

I'm glad that you gave it a try, and sorry that I didn't provide enough ammo - but this will be fixed.  As the screenshots show, I end up with dropped weapons all over the place, and rows of rockets I can't carry - and I even tried not using the chainsaw so much... :(

 

Regarding the monotony:  I did try varying the textures on each level and it just didn't look right;  being basically one giant structure with everything visible once it's opened up.  Any sort of wall detail becomes impossible beyond the first level because of the lowering floors, and I hate getting stuck on sprites.  Any suggestions to make it more visually interesting?

 

As well, I'm getting old, not sure how many more maps I've got left in me, and devoting most of my effort to Doom64 these days.  There are plenty of my maps out there already though.  Search the archive for 'psyren' and/or 'JSGraham' to find them. :)
 

[Helm]

It's not so much more textural variety that I was longing for, just a colour / material theme that worked with the skybox, and perhaps augmented the mandala idea. But as I said, it's fine as is! I will certainly look through the rest of your work :) 

[isthisnametaken]

3 hours ago, Helm said:

It's not so much more textural variety that I was longing for, just a colour / material theme that worked with the skybox, and perhaps augmented the mandala idea.

 

Funny you should mention color, as this was originally going to be for Doom64.  Using the gradient lighting, it seemed a cool idea to go from yellow to green, green to blue, et cetera:

 

 

It wasn't being so nauseatingly psychadelic that bothered me, as much as the way it gets all messed up with walls of different height.

 

I think I got so sick of playing with color that monochrome was the only way to clear my head of it.  But yeah, five levels would have gone the full spectrum!

 

Also, an updated file with what is probably enough ammo to use any weapon exclusively...

 

sarbella6_09.zip

 

[Helm]

I appreciate the update, will test it again and let you know.

edit: ammo is good. Had no problems getting through, I made like 8 saves and died 10 times I think, which means this is well within practice space for me to do saveless. Which I might do once you finalize the map. Here's a video 

Spoiler

 

 that sadly cuts off because I ran out of HDD space at the end, but it may still prove amusing or interesting to you -- a glimpse of how some rando plays doom and shuffles their music library. HD ver still uploading

Edited January 19, 2023 by Helm

[hakros]

Hi, very nice singlemap i liked too much.. congrats :-D !!

[isthisnametaken]

@Helm, Thank you!  Videos/Demos are always valuable feedback.  Sometimes they help to show where resources are lacking.  Other times, they only reaffirm that everyone has a different style.  Tactics and weapon choices are impossible to predict, so the best maps should keep all options available.  It's supposed to be more fun than frustration, but that's my opinion.

As for a final version; this is probably it unless I get feedback (resource status and difficulty) on the last big battle at the bottom.

 

@hakros, Thanks for playing, and I'm glad you enjoyed it! :)
 

[Helm]

Nope no further gameplay feedback. I think aesthetically my crit boils down to that the stock grey wall accent texture you're using is the only texture I would change, to something maroon-toned, something that can tie the skybox and the darker rock flat/texture together. Then in terms of visual we'd be cooking. Gameplay is perfect for what you wanted this to be. If you return to fractal geometry / incremental  gameplay like this, I'd be very keen to see what you come up with, as mentioned. I am also inspired to try something in the vein, so thanks for that.

[hakros]

2 hours ago, isthisnametaken said:

@Helm, Thank you!  Videos/Demos are always valuable feedback.  Sometimes they help to show where resources are lacking.  Other times, they only reaffirm that everyone has a different style.  Tactics and weapon choices are impossible to predict, so the best maps should keep all options available.  It's supposed to be more fun than frustration, but that's my opinion.

As for a final version; this is probably it unless I get feedback (resource status and difficulty) on the last big battle at the bottom.

 

@hakros, Thanks for playing, and I'm glad you enjoyed it! :)
 

 

The map seemed very good to me, the only bug I've seen is some zombieman stuck with a wall on the first floor.

 

I almost didn't get past the wad it because I ran out of ammo. (maybe there should be some ammo in the center).

Luckily the cyberdemon died very quick and using the elevators (I discovered by chance) that the end was on the first floor and I was able to escape otherwise I would not have survived... xD !!

 

I've recorded the full gameplay but youtube is still processing it, when it's done i'll put it here.

 

Conclusion is a great map, keep it up, I'm looking forward to playing the next one.

[isthisnametaken]

1 hour ago, Helm said:

Nope no further gameplay feedback. I think aesthetically my crit boils down to that the stock grey wall accent texture you're using is the only texture I would change, to something maroon-toned, something that can tie the skybox and the darker rock flat/texture together. Then in terms of visual we'd be cooking. Gameplay is perfect for what you wanted this to be. If you return to fractal geometry / incremental  gameplay like this, I'd be very keen to see what you come up with, as mentioned. I am also inspired to try something in the vein, so thanks for that.

This is a great idea.  I could immediately visualise it, but the Doom palette won't cooperate.  Anything purple/violet gets turned into a sloppy mess of reds and blue. Did a little research, and it needs 14 different palettes to work properly.  (I suppose this is why the only replacement palette I've seen is monochrome!)

 

So I'll experiment with some of the red and brown (maybe blue?) textures to get away from the stark gray.

 

25 minutes ago, hakros said:

 

 The map seemed very good to me, the only bug I've seen is some zombieman stuck with a wall on the first floor.

 

I almost didn't get past the wad it because I ran out of ammo. (maybe there should be some ammo in the center).

Luckily the cyberdemon died very quick and using the elevators (I discovered by chance) that the end was on the first floor and I was able to escape otherwise I would not have survived... xD !!

 

I've recorded the full gameplay but youtube is still processing it, when it's done i'll put it here.

 

Conclusion is a great map, keep it up, I'm looking forward to playing the next one.

 Thank you for this info.  More ammo in the central area is easy to fix, and I'll try to find that stuck Zombie guy.  Had some ammo stuck on higher floors when they moved, but didn't notice any enemies doing that.  I probably shot him! :)

[hakros]

@isthisnametaken

 

I've played with BRUTAL DOOM LITE

YouTube is still processing the HD quality

 

 

 

 

 

Edited January 22, 2023 by hakros

[isthisnametaken]

9 hours ago, hakros said:

@isthisnametaken

 

I've played with BRUTAL DOOM LITE

YouTube is still processing the HD quality

 

Wow, hakros!  That's just unbelievably awesome!  I love it!  Most entertaining hour and fifteen minutes I've spent this year, and last year!  :D  

 

Nothing can compare with Brutal Doom, of course, and it keeps getting better.  So many improvements to that mod since I was able to enjoy it fully, 10 years ago.  Can't get more than the 'monsters only fix' to run on this new PC - but I REALLY need to!  GZDoom keeps crashing and saying I'm missing files, but I re-download everything and it still fails. :(

 

And, so rewarding to see someone taking advantage of the fun those lifts were intended to provide.  Many many thanks! :) 

 

Oh, and this was the first version without the extra ammo? 
 

 

 

 

 

Edited January 23, 2023 by isthisnametaken

[hakros]

I'm not sure what version was, i downloaded Sunday morning, I would have to check it out !!

 

The map is very nice so when I release the next version of my launcher I will upload it as featured map... ;-) !!

 

https://www.doomlauncher.com/

 

PS: You can use my launcher to download directly hundred of contents from my own server.

Edited January 23, 2023 by hakros

[thelamp]

Cool map! I remembered playing something similar to this, and to my surprised the map I was thinking of is also yours haha. This map is like a bigger, badder version of "A Hitscanner Murder Maze" and it turned out really well! Gets a bit monotonous in the middle but that's to be expected, the ending is interesting enough to make up for it!

 

 

video of A Hitscanner Murder Maze

Spoiler

 

 

[isthisnametaken]

@thelamp,
Thanks so much for playing, and another great video!  Well done!!!   (Minimal floor cheesing grants priviledge for a forgivable exit dash.  :D ) 

 

Yeah, it's kind of the reversed murder maze, with play area getting progressively smaller rather than larger.  Definately a slogging monotonous endurance test though, especially after 20-30 times playing - but I'm probably done with lowering floors experiments. :)