Stone & Rock - Also Marble (Second map Released) One more map on the way

[Fuzzy]

Stone & Rock - Also Marble

 

Hey everyone! I've been playing classic doom for a little over three years now, and in that time have always wanted to make my own map. So I started this project around February 25th, It includes TWO maps for right now with one more to come.

The first level is very linear and shouldn't be too hard for most people (barring one fight lol). This is the first thing I've ever worked on/released.

The Second level you can pick the direction you wanna go at the start and then at any time choose to switch to the other side, it is a lot bigger in scale and enemy count, however it has a lot of ammo. It is a bit harder than the first level lol. I started to use a lot more marble in this one... (its almost like its taking over the theme of the wad or something....)

Designed for Doom II

Complevel 9 (boom)

Tested with DSDA-doom (v0.25.6)

Software rendering was what I designed around however play how you want

I managed to implement difficulty settings into the wad so it should be more accessible

 

rc2stonenrock.zip

 

Credits

 

Credit to Ribbiks for the midi on Map01

Credit to AD_79 for the midi on Map02

Credit to An Evening with Nirvana Podcast, I've listened to every episode while making these maps.

Credit to DavidXNewton on youtube for the excellent UDB Tutorials on how to map, without his videos I wouldn't have had the courage to make anything.

 

 

 

 

Story

 

I don't play this game for a story but here goes.

 

You were captured by the demons (OH NO!) and brought to this underground base built into the Stone & Rock - Also Marble. You are tasked with escaping, but to do that you must delve deeper into the depths of the cave. Who knows what you'll find down there.....

 

Screenies

Spoiler

Map01

 

Map02

 

 

 

Edited April 3, 2023 by Fuzzy
Edit 1:Fixed a bug with a secret not opening, also fixed coop spawns. Edit 2: Fixed some texture issues and alignment thingsEdit 3: Added second map and many other thingsEdit4: Made some balance changes to health and a bit of ammo for map02

[Bri0che]

Hello :)

 

Strange that nobody already posted anything after almost 1 day, because your map... rocks. Haha.

 

Guess what I recorded myself. I fucked up everything against the arch-viles but, hey, I managed to get over it :

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Fuzzy]

38 minutes ago, Bri0che said:

Hello :)

 

Strange that nobody already posted anything after almost 1 day, because your map... rocks. Haha.

 

Guess what I recorded myself. I fucked up everything against the arch-viles but, hey, I managed to get over it :

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thank you so much for playing the map! :) I see you found some texture problems lol, I didn't notice those in testing because I wasn't playing with mouselook.  Those archviles were the part I was referencing when I said barring one fight lmao sorry (notsorry). I hope it wasn't too mean or rough for a first map. Ill fix those texture errors when i update the wad with the second map, also I totally forgot to mess with the automap settings so it just looks nicer so ill do that too.

[Bri0che]

You're welcome :) it was a fun map, I can't wait for the two others ;)

 

 

1 hour ago, Fuzzy said:

 Those archviles were the part I was referencing when I said barring one fight lmao sorry (notsorry). I hope it wasn't too mean or rough for a first map.

 

It wasn't at all honestly, you gave a supercharge, plus I lacked of strategy. It was obvious that a rude fight was coming, and I did took some of their attack stupidly.

 

Overall, this is an interesting first map that can only tell you'll do even better later. GJ !

[Fuzzy]

11 minutes ago, Bri0che said:

I can't wait for the two others ;)

I can say this right now, the second map is coming along nicely. HOWEVER the Diablo 4 open beta starts soon so I might not be mapping as much for a few days lol. I would give a few teaser pictures but its a bit early into the mapping so I don't have anything textured or polished yet.

[LadyMistDragon]

For your first try, this was excellent! You took a well-worn aesthetic and actually made it an environment that was fun and intriguing to explore! Not to mention it seems you've got no compunctions about pushing the player's buttons. D:)

lmd_stonerocl.zip

[Fuzzy]

2 hours ago, LadyMistDragon said:

For your first try, this was excellent! You took a well-worn aesthetic and actually made it an environment that was fun and intriguing to explore! Not to mention it seems you've got no compunctions about pushing the player's buttons. D:)

lmd_stonerocl.zip

WOW! Thank you for playing my map! I'm happy that it was pretty fun for you :P. I can say that the following maps get maybe a little harder, but definitely bigger in scale. I'm sorry but I'm super new to this lmao, what is this file and how do i do something with it? (I know what a zip is lol, but what is the thing inside) I'm assuming it might be a demo or something but I don't know.  

Edited March 17, 2023 by Fuzzy

[Clippy]

Super extra impressive first map! Kept me on my toes the whole time thrilling well crafted nice lighting all sorts of good stuff here plenty of surprises

 

I absolutely loved it &  will be looking for more of your stuff 

 

 

 

[LadyMistDragon]

On 3/16/2023 at 7:51 PM, Fuzzy said:

WOW! Thank you for playing my map! I'm happy that it was pretty fun for you :P. I can say that the following maps get maybe a little harder, but definitely bigger in scale. I'm sorry but I'm super new to this lmao, what is this file and how do i do something with it? (I know what a zip is lol, but what is the thing inside) I'm assuming it might be a demo or something but I don't know.  

yes, basically you're supposed to play it with the map in question, using parameters or however you normally load Boom wads.

[Fuzzy]

14 hours ago, Clippy said:

Super extra impressive first map! Kept me on my toes the whole time thrilling well crafted nice lighting all sorts of good stuff here plenty of surprises

 

I absolutely loved it &  will be looking for more of your stuff 

 

 

 

This was such a pleasure to watch, the commentary, the gameplay, everything. Thank you so much for playing and recording a video of your playthrough. I'm not really sure what that strange issue was at around 14:16 in the video, ill take a look and see if something funky is going on in the map. Also to answer your question, no I'm not that Fuzzy you were talking about :)

 

5 hours ago, LadyMistDragon said:

yes, basically you're supposed to play it with the map in question, using parameters or however you normally load Boom wads.

Aha thank you :). I cannot wait to watch it now. Seriously though, the videos and now this demo have been so so so worth making this map and I cant wait for you guys to see what follows. :> I cant confirm when exactly the second map will be finished, (I have maybe 40% of it blocked and textured out, and maybe 20% of that finished with thing placement.) However I'm getting close to releasing a few teaser images for it. (I might even throw in a teaser for map 03...)

Edited March 19, 2023 by Fuzzy

[Fuzzy]

4 hours ago, LadyMistDragon said:

yes, basically you're supposed to play it with the map in question, using parameters or however you normally load Boom wads.

Follow up comment after having watched LadyMistDragon play the map with the demo she recorded. I held my breath for so long watching you get ABSOLUTELY SURROUNDED at the beginning of the demo with such low health and you survived! (It was only after I realized I was holding my breath for the last 30 seconds I started breathing again lmao.)

 

I was sort of expecting more players to hopefully pickup on the different textures on certain walls as a big sign basically saying "Ok this is for sure going to lower/reveal something so maybe I should try and kill what I have on my plate before moving on" type of thing but I'm not sure if that is coming across like I had hoped. I ?think? I do a better job in the following maps of indicating where monsters are going to be coming from.

 

After watching the stuff so far and seeing how people are running out of health a bit more than I was expecting I might punch up the health pickups in the following maps.. Or I could just get off my ass and implement difficulty settings and leave Ultraviolence as is. (In fact I pledge that before I release the next two maps I will implement the lower difficulties into all of them so that they can be a little bit more accessible. Because perhaps I'm underselling the difficulty.)

Edited March 19, 2023 by Fuzzy

[Fuzzy]

Some teaser pictures of Map02. Starting to crank up the marble usage... (it's almost like its taking over or something)

 

Spoiler

 

Edited March 21, 2023 by Fuzzy
Added another teaser image :)

[Dopaminecloud]

Haven't played yet but gotta say, love the basically perfect scale of your locations. That's not something many people get down from the start.

[Fuzzy]

9 hours ago, Dopaminecloud said:

Haven't played yet but gotta say, love the basically perfect scale of your locations. That's not something many people get down from the start.

Thanks lol, I spent a large amount of time making this first map. So you're just not seeing all of the times I created some massive monstrosity of a square or oddly shaped room, and then spent time shrinking and changing the shape of it into something that actually worked. (You should have seen the first red key room/trap, it was this giant square room with a pillar in the middle with a cyberdemon on it and it was just so fricking ugly and hard to work with so I scrapped it. I'm glad I did too because i like the current iteration a lot more.)

[Custom Longplay]

Project Brutality 3.0 - Doom 2 - Map: #0250 - Stone & Rock - Also Marble - [4K60ᶠᵖˢ]

 

 

[Fuzzy]

10 hours ago, Custom Longplay said:

Project Brutality 3.0 - Doom 2 - Map: #0250 - Stone & Rock - Also Marble - [4K60ᶠᵖˢ]

 

 

Dang this was so cool to watch. I made this wad with software lighting and only tested with dsda doom, so seeing this insane fidelity in doom is just crazy to me. With that said i think it looked really good even with that in mind. Thank you for playing the map, hope it was fun.

[Dopaminecloud]

Played it. Got another vid if you feel like sitting through another blind playthrough haha. My playstyle is methodical however so you'll be able to breathe.

I have 0 actual gripes, this is great. The map sets up clear communication early on about everything but especially secrets and traps remain consistent the whole time. Makes it easy to look for resources and react. As a result, with the size of the final room I was expecting far more to be unleashed since I was doing pretty chill, but I don't mind a light second phase to smoothe yourself into the exit. I'd definitely love to see you go harder in forcing a momentum in fights though, you're very generous with perfect cover and retreat options in this one.

The balance is fine in my opinion, high rev and archie count with green armor at most just means that small mistakes can become lethal fast so it can seem scarier than it is. I think there's enough health to recover plenty of times, so it's more a question of being able to stabilize after a mistake which there's plenty of room for. Anyway I love caves and water, can't go wrong with it.

 

 

[Fuzzy]

4 hours ago, Dopaminecloud said:

Played it. Got another vid if you feel like sitting through another blind playthrough haha. My playstyle is methodical however so you'll be able to breathe.

I have 0 actual gripes, this is great. The map sets up clear communication early on about everything but especially secrets and traps remain consistent the whole time. Makes it easy to look for resources and react. As a result, with the size of the final room I was expecting far more to be unleashed since I was doing pretty chill, but I don't mind a light second phase to smoothe yourself into the exit. I'd definitely love to see you go harder in forcing a momentum in fights though, you're very generous with perfect cover and retreat options in this one.

The balance is fine in my opinion, high rev and archie count with green armor at most just means that small mistakes can become lethal fast so it can seem scarier than it is. I think there's enough health to recover plenty of times, so it's more a question of being able to stabilize after a mistake which there's plenty of room for. Anyway I love caves and water, can't go wrong with it.

 

 

Such a clean run, good job! I appreciate the video :). Map02 is coming soontm so hopefully you won't have too wait much longer to see the next one. I'm finding it really hard to place monsters in the map that you can kill during the "downtime" so I'm really bad at having any momentum in fights. (or in other words once a trap is triggered that's usually the only monsters you're going to have to deal with, I'm trying really hard to make the next maps have better run and gun/"regular combat".)

 

PS.

I appreciate you looking out for my health by playing very safely so I can breathe. ;P

[Fuzzy]

I have added the second map to the main download. Yippee! Finally got it finished! I hope you all enjoy it. I like it a lot more than the first level but I'm biased lol. I managed to implement difficulty levels into the 2 levels so far so it should be a bit more accessible. (Maybe, I didn't do that much playtesting with the difficulty/balancing of the lower difficulties) I also added a bit more to the description of the main post :)

[Dopaminecloud]

Hell yes I was waiting.

Played a bit of the second one now until I got archie'd. It's bigger and better but has the same DNA! Super impressive. Because of its scale I don't know if a video is a good idea for me for filesize reasons (and the fact I like to upload single-segment playthroughs with no reloads). But I will definitely post feedback once I've beaten it. 

[LadyMistDragon]

Demo'd the second map and um yeah....I'd already had too much luck by that point, to be fair. I may have rewinded once or twice, but let's say it wasn't in situations that weren't so luck-dependent. 

lmd_stonenrock.zip

Edited March 31, 2023 by LadyMistDragon
forgot the demo again, good god!

[RastaManGames]

Name of that project reminding me of "Deep Rock Galactic" videogame.

 

"Rock & stone, brother!"

[Fuzzy]

8 hours ago, LadyMistDragon said:

Demo'd the second map and um yeah....I'd already had too much luck by that point, to be fair. I may have rewinded once or twice, but let's say it wasn't in situations that weren't so luck-dependent. 

lmd_stonenrock.zip

Heya LadyMistDragon, I wanted to ask you off the bat if you think there was a lack of ammo/health in the map? Watching your demo there were moments where you had used pretty much all the health in the area and didn't have any way to heal back up. Since I was the only playtester, (I knew where everything was and knew how to handle every situation) I'm curious what you think of the difficulty/lack of health? Any other feedback is greatly appreciated. :)

 

PS

Did I undersell the difficulty of the map by saying it was only a bit harder than the first?

[Fuzzy]

7 hours ago, RastaManGames said:

Name of that project reminding me of "Deep Rock Galactic" videogame.

 

"Rock & stone, brother!"

I initially was planning on making it a deep rock themed wad but just could not come up with a way of doing it using stock textures and enemies. So the name is a remnant of that lol. I added the Also Marble part as a way to hopefully make it less obvious lmao, also changed the direction I was going to take the wad.

 

Rock & Stone to the bone!

[Dopaminecloud]

And beaten, great time. I went yellow key, then red key, then upper area. This is probably the easiest progression. Mostly same thoughts as last time though this format definitely benefits from the larger scale with more areas and multiple traps bleeding over into each other when you start stumbling. Secrets were similar but better hidden, I appreciate the area map because the one real sneaky secret took me a bit of wandering haha. I wonder if it'd be alright to make the reward for that one something crazier. Chances are that if you find it using the area map you're already done with at minimum 2/3rds of the map anyway.

 

My favorite things here are the overall structure of the map; it feels much more like a goal oriented gauntlet, especially with the central exit in sight from the start and the yellow key displayed up on the hill (and I do love hill battles). And purely gameplay wise the drop-down to red key had the most frantic staggered triggering of a great deal of enemies for me which I also enjoy. Good overwatch cyber too. I had 0 ammo trouble but I did notice the plasmagun location a bit late, maybe make that stand out more (perhaps relocating the backpack that's on top of it as I think that's what made me miss it, could be a gzdoom thing though). Providing important weapons multiple times can be considered too. I don't think anyone would really miss them in this particular map, but as a future habit it's never bad to have things pop up more than once in open maps. It kills the sense of having a "right way" to go, if you're into that.

 

I'll leave health comments to others.

[Fuzzy]

2 hours ago, Dopaminecloud said:

And beaten, great time. I went yellow key, then red key, then upper area. This is probably the easiest progression. Mostly same thoughts as last time though this format definitely benefits from the larger scale with more areas and multiple traps bleeding over into each other when you start stumbling. Secrets were similar but better hidden, I appreciate the area map because the one real sneaky secret took me a bit of wandering haha. I wonder if it'd be alright to make the reward for that one something crazier. Chances are that if you find it using the area map you're already done with at minimum 2/3rds of the map anyway.

 

My favorite things here are the overall structure of the map; it feels much more like a goal oriented gauntlet, especially with the central exit in sight from the start and the yellow key displayed up on the hill (and I do love hill battles). And purely gameplay wise the drop-down to red key had the most frantic staggered triggering of a great deal of enemies for me which I also enjoy. Good overwatch cyber too. I had 0 ammo trouble but I did notice the plasmagun location a bit late, maybe make that stand out more (perhaps relocating the backpack that's on top of it as I think that's what made me miss it, could be a gzdoom thing though). Providing important weapons multiple times can be considered too. I don't think anyone would really miss them in this particular map, but as a future habit it's never bad to have things pop up more than once in open maps. It kills the sense of having a "right way" to go, if you're into that.

 

I'll leave health comments to others.

Hello :), thank you for the great write up. I am so pleased you like the map ATLEAST as much as the first one lol. Which secret gave you the trouble? (On the topic of secrets, I initially had the rocket launcher in a secret on the plasma side of the map. Alternatively I had the plasma in a secret on the rocket launcher side. They were still on their respective sides in the normal locations but yeah I could probably re add them to those secrets.) I could definitely move the backpack off of the plasma platform to somewhere else, I only put it there for people who wanted to stick to one side of the map at a time and I didn't have a place for it. I was really worried about the cybie not being received well, as its pretty much released at the very end of a map that's not necessarily short but I'm glad it worked out. This was also my first foray into a not super linear mapping style and I don't know if I'm as pleased at how it came out as I was hoping.

 

Hopefully you're still looking forward to map03, it will most likely be harder than map02. It won't be as non linear and it will be more of a locked off gauntlet type map where you have to progress through the fight before proceeding to the next area. I'm going to focus more on the combat and adding some pretty cool vistas for you to look at while slaying demons :). Once again thank you for playing my wad so far.

Edited March 31, 2023 by Fuzzy

[Dopaminecloud]

1 hour ago, Fuzzy said:

Hello :), thank you for the great write up. I am so pleased you like the map ATLEAST as much as the first one lol. Which secret gave you the trouble? (On the topic of secrets, I initially had the rocket launcher in a secret on the plasma side of the map. Alternatively I had the plasma in a secret on the rocket launcher side. They were still on their respective sides in the normal locations but yeah I could probably re add them to those secrets.) I could definitely move the backpack off of the plasma platform to somewhere else, I only put it there for people who wanted to stick to one side of the map at a time and I didn't have a place for it. I was really worried about the cybie not being received well, as its pretty much released at the very end of a map that's not necessarily short but I'm glad it worked out. This was also my first foray into a not super linear mapping style and I don't know if I'm as pleased at how it came out as I was hoping.

 

Hopefully you're still looking forward to map03, it will most likely be harder than map02. It won't be as non linear and it will be more of a locked off gauntlet type map where you have to progress through the fight before proceeding to the next area. I'm going to focus more on the combat and adding some pretty cool vistas for you to look at while slaying demons :). Once again thank you for playing my wad so far.

 

About the secret:

Spoiler

I can't believe you have to ask. The shoot button of course haha. I tend not to open my map very often and because I wasn't looking for little things like that I only came across it when deliberately doubling back at the end to look around. The pillar itself was noticable which is plenty of clue-in that there's SOMETHING in the area which did make sure I found it eventually.

 

A cybie in an open area after you've given plenty of plasma ammo is almost always fine. Only with lesser weaponry do they become a hitch in pacing (if they're directly guarding progress). As for non-linearity, I'm awful at designing open maps myself so I can't give that much insight. Linked-zone design is obviously not TRULY open but it still feels it. Perhaps the platform you need to raise to head for the red key area shouldn't be there so players can actually commit to that direction from the get go instead of having to go fish up the ssg and then being placed right next to yellow as a result. Anyway it's more non-linear than what I can do so I was still impressed lol, this is great even when not considering how early into your mapping efforts these are. Looking forward to the third, keep it up.

[Fuzzy]

1 hour ago, Dopaminecloud said:

 

About the secret:

  Reveal hidden contents

I can't believe you have to ask. The shoot button of course haha. I tend not to open my map very often and because I wasn't looking for little things like that I only came across it when deliberately doubling back at the end to look around. The pillar itself was noticable which is plenty of clue-in that there's SOMETHING in the area which did make sure I found it eventually.

 

A cybie in an open area after you've given plenty of plasma ammo is almost always fine. Only with lesser weaponry do they become a hitch in pacing (if they're directly guarding progress). As for non-linearity, I'm awful at designing open maps myself so I can't give that much insight. Linked-zone design is obviously not TRULY open but it still feels it. Perhaps the platform you need to raise to head for the red key area shouldn't be there so players can actually commit to that direction from the get go instead of having to go fish up the ssg and then being placed right next to yellow as a result. Anyway it's more non-linear than what I can do so I was still impressed lol, this is great even when not considering how early into your mapping efforts these are. Looking forward to the third, keep it up.

Aha that secret, I think this falls into the age old classic problem of "Oh yeah I made this map so this secret isn't that hidden and the players will find this easy." I'm alright leaving it as is but yeah its definitely more hidden than any of my other secrets.

 

Now on to the platform that raises after grabbing the ssg. I went back and forth in the early parts of making the map on whether or not to even include that stupid thing lol, you're right I think ill just make it so you can go that way by default. I made it that way so that hopefully you won't go into the red key area without grabbing the ssg first but I think the sacrifice in choice is pretty bad, because as you said I expect most people will choose to go to the yellow key area first just because its closer after having grabbed it.

Edited March 31, 2023 by Fuzzy

[LadyMistDragon]

On 3/31/2023 at 1:10 AM, Fuzzy said:

Heya LadyMistDragon, I wanted to ask you off the bat if you think there was a lack of ammo/health in the map? Watching your demo there were moments where you had used pretty much all the health in the area and didn't have any way to heal back up. Since I was the only playtester, (I knew where everything was and knew how to handle every situation) I'm curious what you think of the difficulty/lack of health? Any other feedback is greatly appreciated. :)

 

PS

Did I undersell the difficulty of the map by saying it was only a bit harder than the first?

 

 

Honestly, yeah :p)

 

I was playing somewhat carelessly, but thinking about it a little, health and ammo could be definitely be increased. Some of the ambushes push it in a such a way, the difficulty curve as such is probably gonna be too sharp if one isn't quite expecting it.

[Fuzzy]

On 3/31/2023 at 10:43 AM, Dopaminecloud said:

 

About the secret:

  Reveal hidden contents

I can't believe you have to ask. The shoot button of course haha. I tend not to open my map very often and because I wasn't looking for little things like that I only came across it when deliberately doubling back at the end to look around. The pillar itself was noticable which is plenty of clue-in that there's SOMETHING in the area which did make sure I found it eventually.

 

A cybie in an open area after you've given plenty of plasma ammo is almost always fine. Only with lesser weaponry do they become a hitch in pacing (if they're directly guarding progress). As for non-linearity, I'm awful at designing open maps myself so I can't give that much insight. Linked-zone design is obviously not TRULY open but it still feels it. Perhaps the platform you need to raise to head for the red key area shouldn't be there so players can actually commit to that direction from the get go instead of having to go fish up the ssg and then being placed right next to yellow as a result. Anyway it's more non-linear than what I can do so I was still impressed lol, this is great even when not considering how early into your mapping efforts these are. Looking forward to the third, keep it up.

 

On 4/1/2023 at 11:03 AM, LadyMistDragon said:

 

 

Honestly, yeah :p)

 

I was playing somewhat carelessly, but thinking about it a little, health and ammo could be definitely be increased. Some of the ambushes push it in a such a way, the difficulty curve as such is probably gonna be too sharp if one isn't quite expecting it.

 

I made some ammo/health balance changes based on feedback from Dopaminecloud and LadyMistDragon, I also added multiples of each of the main weapons (plasma added to rocket launcher side and rocket launcher added to plasma side, one is in a secret... but ill let you find which one :) )