Snow Crash

[StellarWind]

Snow Crash.wad

 

#1 Download #2 GDrive

 

Map format: UDMF (with absolutely minimum reasoning to use it except a few scripts I wanted to experiment with).

What ports did I test with: GZDoom 4.10.0.

Freelook: Yes.

Jumping: No, but wouldn't mind in the library section.

Crouching: Absolutely, but no point.

Hardware rendering: Yes, please. I've placed a few a dynamic lights here and there, would be cool if you enabled them. Map is light on linedefs so should not be taxing on CPU/GPU.

IWAD: Doom 2

Difficulty: Easy except a few final fights. Was designed for UV originally.

 

Flavor: You work as security in an excavation site deep inside remote mountains. You return after the last provision trip only to find everyone has disappeared. Dead clients means only less beer money, grab your shotgun and prepare for a descent —- it's going to be a helluva ride.

 

Screenshots:

Spoiler

 

This is my first attempt at mapping after starting playing doom a month ago, feel free to roast me so I can become better. Especially would love to hear how to make fights better. An obvious issue I see now: i provide a lot of free infighting by clumping monsters together in tight places. I was focused mainly on UV difficulty and tried to adapt the map to my skill level (garbage). But I do admit I quicksave before the 3rd phase of pre-final fight.

 

As for the process of creation itself -- had an absolute blast inside UDB, really amazed by it (except a few out of memory crashes heh). Not so much regarding SLADE3, which is quite a buggy piece of software to say the least. Would be cool if SLADE3 had a proper API to operate on textures and graphics lumps, to smartly merge texture packs.

 

All credits go to Ola and his amazing OTEX texture pack.

 

Thanks for checking this out! If you had even a modicum of fun while playing this I declare my mission a success :)

Edited June 2, 2023 by StellarWind

[SakuraFalls]

Hi, I'll be honest... I've not played through it all.
I think the design for the floors is very detailed.
The texture variety is worthy of praise.

The style is interesting while the theme is very unique!
There are some textures I disagree with combined.
I'm not sure I like the use of the sticks.
Overall, it's an interesting WAD that I wish I had time to check out more.

[StellarWind]

8 minutes ago, SakuraFalls said:

Hi, I'll be honest... I've not played through it all.
I think the design for the floors is very detailed.
The texture variety is worthy of praise.

The style is interesting while the theme is very unique!
There are some textures I disagree with combined.
I'm not sure I like the use of the sticks.
Overall, it's an interesting WAD that I wish I had time to check out more.

Thank you! I agree on both points. I've imported OTEX and was like "woah i can use all that? I can use all that!" and definitely overdid it in places. As for the sticks also agreed - an obvious attempt to add some map clutter.

[RDETalus]

You did really good with the level design. Good looking natural environments are rare to see in Doom and I think you have talent for it. There's enough variety and distinct theming in the level to make exploration fun.

I don't know very much about Doom combat but I'm guessing the main issue is that there isn't a lot of danger. The player can usually just hide behind cover and take out enemies one by one. Maybe you need to have enemies attack the player from behind more often, to push the player out of safe zones. For example, in the gold skull room, you have a single Arch-Vile pop out and I can just hide behind a pillar and kill it easily. Perhaps there should be some demons or revenants attack from the opposite side of the room so the player is denied 100% cover from the Arch-Vile.

[StellarWind]

3 minutes ago, RDETalus said:

You did really good with the level design. Good looking natural environments are rare to see in Doom and I think you have talent for it. There's enough variety and distinct theming in the level to make exploration fun.

I don't know very much about Doom combat but I'm guessing the main issue is that there isn't a lot of danger. The player can usually just hide behind cover and take out enemies one by one. Maybe you need to have enemies attack the player from behind more often, to push the player out of safe zones. For example, in the gold skull room, you have a single Arch-Vile pop out and I can just hide behind a pillar and kill it easily. Perhaps there should be some demons or revenants attack from the opposite side of the room so the player is denied 100% cover from the Arch-Vile.

Thank you for kind words! Regarding fights exactly my thoughts, after replaying this level it feels more like a conventional boom shoot level with exploration rather than Doom craziness that makes it so good and popular. I tried to add some gotchas but everything is super avoidable indeed. For the next map im definitely going with more conventional design and traps.

[Biodegradable]

This is an excellent first map in terms of design, layout, level progression and texture work, I must say. One of the best newbie maps I've played so far this year. Nicely done, fam!

 

 

[Scorpinax]

This is quite nice for a first attempt at mapping. Great job! I loved all the little details and how the maps areas connected together. There was a lot of detail that didn't rely on an over abudance of sectors. 

Other than some of the icicle textures not showing on the back side, I didn't see anything off. If you're looking to make the fights harder, I advise stricter control over ammo, as you can walk into the last fight with 600 plasma and an abundance of rockets I was expecting about twice as much opposition. But don't feel like you're doing something wrong if the map isn't hard: there's absolutely nothing wrong at all with a map thats on the easier side.

 

Overall its ridiculously clean for a first attempt at mapping. You should be proud and definitely keep mapping, you'll make even greater things if you do!
 

[StellarWind]

4 hours ago, Biodegradable said:

This is an excellent first map in terms of design, layout, level progression and texture work, I must say. One of the best newbie maps I've played so far this year. Nicely done, fam!

 

 

Such an amazing feel to see someone play your stuff :') Also very useful to notice the broken music. I've used e1m1 in MAPINFO lump and had a metal cover mod that contained this song so it worked for me... I've fixed the wad file to use something else from DOOM2, will go and check youtube doom midi gods on what i can use. As for the invis pinky, yeah.. I wanted a one with fuzz shader, saw that weird invisible behaviour and thought it's just gzdoom shenanigans.  They defo feel cheap, will remember to use the right ones in future. Thanks again for playing!

 

3 hours ago, Scorpinax said:

This is quite nice for a first attempt at mapping. Great job! I loved all the little details and how the maps areas connected together. There was a lot of detail that didn't rely on an over abudance of sectors. 

Other than some of the icicle textures not showing on the back side, I didn't see anything off. If you're looking to make the fights harder, I advise stricter control over ammo, as you can walk into the last fight with 600 plasma and an abundance of rockets I was expecting about twice as much opposition. But don't feel like you're doing something wrong if the map isn't hard: there's absolutely nothing wrong at all with a map thats on the easier side.

 

Overall its ridiculously clean for a first attempt at mapping. You should be proud and definitely keep mapping, you'll make even greater things if you do!
 

 

YES! Those icicles... I fixed them now and reuploaded.. I knew about them, just procrastinated the menial work of copying texture and offset from front to back face in Doom Builder. Can't believe there's no hotkey to do it quickly. As for rationing the ammo, yeah i didn't want it to be a Sunlust and also didn't want player to enter final arena with a full backpack of cells. I guess balancing this is truly an art and comes with experience. Will be closely watching other wads on how pros do that :) Many thanks for kind words, really hope won't disappoint with future maps! 

[SakuraFalls]

BUMP!

[RDETalus]

9 hours ago, StellarWind said:

I guess balancing this is truly an art and comes with experience.

Here is how I balance ammo. Not sure if this is how the pros do it, but it works for me and prevents too much or too little ammo:

1) This encounter has 4 zombies, 2 imps, 2 demons, and 1 hell knight

2) Each zombie or imp requires 1 shotshell to kill, each demon requires 2 shotshells, each hell knight requires 4 shotshells

3) The encounter requires at least 14 shotshells to defeat

4) You want some extra shotshells in case the player misses, so round up 14 to 20

5) This means you need to give the player either 1 box of twenty shotshells or 5 strips of four shotshells to kill all the enemies

You don't want the player to only be using shotshells though, so you can convert some of the shotshells to bullets. For example, take away 8 shotshells and replace them with 1 box of fifty bullets to get roughly the equivalent amount of damage power.

Then playtest and play through your entire map. If the player completes the level with way too much ammo than he needed, then you can start removing some ammo here and there.

 

Edited June 1, 2023 by RDETalus

[SakuraFalls]

Hi, I've played your WAD a second time today. It's still the best WAD I've played recently that is created by a first time WAD creator.

[StellarWind]

5 hours ago, RDETalus said:

Here is how I balance ammo. Not sure if this is how the pros do it, but it works for me and prevents too much or too little ammo:

1) This encounter has 4 zombies, 2 imps, 2 demons, and 1 hell knight

2) Each zombie or imp requires 1 shotshell to kill, each demon requires 2 shotshells, each hell knight requires 4 shotshells

3) The encounter requires at least 14 shotshells to defeat

4) You want some extra shotshells in case the player misses, so round up 14 to 20

5) This means you need to give the player either 1 box of twenty shotshells or 5 strips of four shotshells to kill all the enemies

You don't want the player to only be using shotshells though, so you can convert some of the shotshells to bullets. For example, take away 8 shotshells and replace them with 1 box of fifty bullets to get roughly the equivalent amount of damage power.

Then playtest and play through your entire map. If the player completes the level with way too much ammo than he needed, then you can start removing some ammo here and there.

 

Doing some ammo math and forcing players to use other weapons sounds good and is a direct opposite of my "super shotty goes brr just use the gut feel" approach! For some reason my mind completely blocked off the idea of calculating ammo/enemy count ratios. Will try it with next map. Just hope it doesn't turn into a UDB script to crunch all the numbers which consequently will lead to zealous ultra optimizations :)

 

1 hour ago, SakuraFalls said:

Hi, I've played your WAD a second time today. It's still the best WAD I've played recently that is created by a first time WAD creator.

 

Thank you very much! Seeing people play and download the map already made it worth the efforts, seeing a high praise like this just puts a silly smile on my face all day long and motivates to make more.

[SakuraFalls]

Hi, thank you very much too! You deserve the high praise! You have truly taken this map design to the absolute snowy peak! Hehe, pun-intended.
I'm glad it puts a smile on your face, silly is valid too. I hope you make more!

[RastaManGames]

First of all, here is a humble playthrough of your map by me:

 

By the way, there was few moments that I see as a little "raw".

You can take my words with some grain of salt, but I am gonna try to explain myself further.

And please don't be offended by these! I mean no harm and only wanting to help you!

 

1) I don't really like how rock instantly "transforming" into snow.

Spoiler

Personally, I think that there must be one of two things:

A) Dark rock texture may have white or light gray tone, so it can look more "snowy" to match nearby floors.

B) You can try and add more sectors that gonna represent a "snowy hats". It can be tedious to make though.

 

2) Same thing goes here, I guess.

Spoiler

I know that this a handmade formation (brick structure) that was demolished by the force of nature.

But you can see that there is an lit torches that is active, so... Some of these bricks (also nearby rocks) can not have the snowy surface.

 

3) Something here just doesn't look right for me...

Spoiler

I have no complaints to the door, but this is really dangerous to use a texture from the wall to the flat (floor and/or ceiling). And in this particular place I think that wall texture looks kinda wrong on the top of these bookshelves.

Also, big square shelf at the right side looks strange, since it must have dark sides then or light top.

 

4) You can have some beautiful floor's glow over here, so this surface gonna "shine" at its best.

Spoiler

 

5) And these places may have manually placed dynamic lights, so they gonna be more "juicy" for the eyes.

Spoiler

 

6) Please, refrain from using stealth monsters. They are really bad in the terms of Doom's design. This is not fun to have fully invisible enemy that can be seen only while attacking or gaining some damage.

If you want to use somewhat cool Spectres analogues, then you can place usual Demons and tweak their rendering settings a bit. Here is a "translucent" render style that is equals to 0.1:

Spoiler

A lot more spooky and seems somewhat fair, since you can see them... Right?

 

7) A small suggestion to turn all "fully solid" structures in to solid walls (with void behind them), since GZDoom can have cool shadows from dynamic lights, but only if you have solid walls. It not gonna work with sectors with height = 0 (when height of ceiling and floor are same).

Spoiler

 

All of these points just my humble personal opinion, but I think that if you gonna use UDMF, then you can let yourself to put more "bells & whistles" on the map here & there.

After all, map itself was neat and I like some of its places due to their atmosphere.

Can't say much about balance, since I played with gameplay mods, but I had hard time twice: In the lava cave and in the final area (before Cyberdemon fight).

 

Additional pros for you for including all the needed textures without having to load entire "O-Tex" with the map.

And thanks for some kind of "story" that you attached to your map. It is always nice to read those.

Good first attempt with UDMF and I hope that you not gonna abandon it in the future.

Edited June 1, 2023 by RastaManGames

[Wo0p]

Spoiler

On 5/31/2023 at 8:43 AM, StellarWind said:

Snow Crash.wad

 

Download

 

Map format: UDMF (with absolutely minimum reasoning to use it except a few scripts I wanted to experiment with).

What ports did I test with: GZDoom 4.10.0.

Freelook: Yes.

Jumping: No, but wouldn't mind in the library section.

Crouching: Absolutely, but no point.

Hardware rendering: Yes, please. I've placed a few a dynamic lights here and there, would be cool if you enabled them. Map is light on linedefs so should not be taxing on CPU/GPU.

IWAD: Doom 2

Difficulty: Easy except a few final fights. Was designed for UV originally.

 

Flavor: You work as security in an excavation site deep inside remote mountains. You return after the last provision trip only to find everyone has disappeared. Dead clients means only less beer money, grab your shotgun and prepare for a descent —- it's going to be a helluva ride.

 

Screenshots:

  Reveal hidden contents

 

This is my first attempt at mapping after starting playing doom a month ago, feel free to roast me so I can become better. Especially would love to hear how to make fights better. An obvious issue I see now: i provide a lot of free infighting by clumping monsters together in tight places. I was focused mainly on UV difficulty and tried to adapt the map to my skill level (garbage). But I do admit I quicksave before the 3rd phase of pre-final fight.

 

As for the process of creation itself -- had an absolute blast inside UDB, really amazed by it (except a few out of memory crashes heh). Not so much regarding SLADE3, which is quite a buggy piece of software to say the least. Would be cool if SLADE3 had a proper API to operate on textures and graphics lumps, to smartly merge texture packs.

 

All credits go to Ola and his amazing OTEX texture pack.

 

Thanks for checking this out! If you had even a modicum of fun while playing this I declare my mission a success :)

 

Hey this was awesome! Especially considering this was your first mapping attempt. You have a definite knack for creating interesting and stimulating architecture. Loved the look and feel of the map :)

I would agree with @RastaManGaming that the borders between snow and stone could use some building up of snow at the base. Hard to do if you don't have the textures for it though (I don't remember if OTEX has that.. hm) but I'm sure you'll figure out to smooth out transitions like that as you make more maps (If you do make more!)

As for gameplay and difficulty, it's quite an easy map right up until the last fights (Played on UV GZDoom with freelook btw!). One of my few suggestions for you to improve the map would perhaps to be increasing the difficulty leading up to the last fights. Maybe add two more Hellknights at the blue skull key fight and some pinkies or lost souls at the yellow one. Just a suggestion. It kinda gives the player a notion that things are heating up now!

 

Stealth monsters are indeed highly contentious but I didn't mind them as there's really not a lot of them and at least they are melee monsters so you kinda know where they're going to go (In your face!).

 

Oh and I found a bug. Don't open if you don't wanna be spoiled by the map fellow Doomers.

Spoiler

You can pick up the blue armor in the library before you open the secret door.

 

That's all I think. Great first map :) Hope you make more

Edited June 1, 2023 by Wo0p

[SakuraFalls]

55 minutes ago, RastaManGames said:

First of all, here is a humble playthrough of your map by me:

 

By the way, there was few moments that I see as a little "raw".

You can take my words with some grain of salt, but I am gonna try to explain myself further.

And please don't be offended by these! I mean no harm and only wanting to help you!

 

1) I don't really like how rock instantly "transforming" into snow.

  Hide contents

Personally, I think that there must be one of two things:

A) Dark rock texture may have white or light gray tone, so it can look more "snowy" to match nearby floors.

B) You can try and add more sectors that gonna represent a "snowy hats". It can be tedious to make though.

 

2) Same thing goes here, I guess.

  Hide contents

I know that this a handmade formation (brick structure) that was demolished by the force of nature.

But you can see that there is an lit torches that is active, so... Some of these bricks (also nearby rocks) can not have the snowy surface.

 

3) Something here just doesn't look right for me...

  Hide contents

I have no complaints to the door, but this is really dangerous to use a texture from the wall to the flat (floor and/or ceiling). And in this particular place I think that wall texture looks kinda wrong on the top of these bookshelves.

Also, big square shelf at the right side looks strange, since it must have dark sides then or light top.

 

4) You can have some beautiful floor's glow over here, so this surface gonna "shine" at its best.

  Hide contents

 

5) And these places may have manually placed dynamic lights, so they gonna be more "juicy" for the eyes.

  Hide contents

 

6) Please, refrain from using stealth monsters. They are really bad in the terms of Doom's design. This is not fun to have fully invisible enemy that can be seen only while attacking or gaining some damage.

If you want to use somewhat cool Spectres analogues, then you can place usual Demons and tweak their rendering settings a bit. Here is a "translucent" render style that is equals to 0.1:

  Hide contents

A lot more spooky and seems somewhat fair, since you can see them... Right?

 

7) A small suggestion to turn all "fully solid" structures in to solid walls (with void behind them), since GZDoom can have cool shadows from dynamic lights, but only if you have solid walls. It not gonna work with sectors with height = 0 (when height of ceiling and floor are same).

  Hide contents

 

All of these points just my humble personal opinion, but I think that if you gonna use UDMF, then you can let yourself to put more "bells & whistles" on the map here & there.

After all, map itself was neat and I like some of its places due to their atmosphere.

Can't say much about balance, since I played with gameplay mods, but I had hard time twice: In the lava cave and in the final area (before Cyberdemon fight).

 

Additional pros for you for including all the needed textures without having to load entire "O-Tex" with the map.

And thanks for some kind of "story" that you attached to your map. It is always nice to read those.

Good first attempt with UDMF and I hope that you not gonna abandon it in the future.

Hi, I really appreciate this. I agree with so much of what you mentioned.
I'm interested in the mod that replaces the demons. What mod is that? I prefer it, I don't really like seeing demons xD
Anyway, I'm interested in this map design. I'd like to make something similar but I don't know how to make the sky.

[rita remton]

hi! just played this map. very impressive for a first map. some of the monster placements has that level usually not associated with an amateur wad. and i do like the awesome aesthetics! perhaps map flow needs some reworking, but the rest is quite ok imo. thank you for making and sharing this map :)

[RastaManGames]

2 hours ago, SakuraFalls said:

I'm interested in the mod that replaces the demons. What mod is that? I prefer it, I don't really like seeing demons xD

I've sent you a private message with all humanoid-only enemy packs that I know.

 

2 hours ago, SakuraFalls said:

Anyway, I'm interested in this map design. I'd like to make something similar but I don't know how to make the sky.

If you are with L-R/Boom/MBF21 - then you can easily add custom sky.
It can be done with replacing RSKY1 (bruteforcing) or via UMAPINFO (where you can define custom sky to your map).

Or, if you are with UDMF, you can make an entire skybox with all 6 sides.

Edited June 1, 2023 by RastaManGames

[StellarWind]

5 hours ago, RastaManGames said:

First of all, here is a humble playthrough of your map by me:

 

By the way, there was few moments that I see as a little "raw".

You can take my words with some grain of salt, but I am gonna try to explain myself further.

And please don't be offended by these! I mean no harm and only wanting to help you!

 

1) I don't really like how rock instantly "transforming" into snow.

  Hide contents

Personally, I think that there must be one of two things:

A) Dark rock texture may have white or light gray tone, so it can look more "snowy" to match nearby floors.

B) You can try and add more sectors that gonna represent a "snowy hats". It can be tedious to make though.

 

2) Same thing goes here, I guess.

  Hide contents

I know that this a handmade formation (brick structure) that was demolished by the force of nature.

But you can see that there is an lit torches that is active, so... Some of these bricks (also nearby rocks) can not have the snowy surface.

 

3) Something here just doesn't look right for me...

  Hide contents

I have no complaints to the door, but this is really dangerous to use a texture from the wall to the flat (floor and/or ceiling). And in this particular place I think that wall texture looks kinda wrong on the top of these bookshelves.

Also, big square shelf at the right side looks strange, since it must have dark sides then or light top.

 

4) You can have some beautiful floor's glow over here, so this surface gonna "shine" at its best.

  Hide contents

 

5) And these places may have manually placed dynamic lights, so they gonna be more "juicy" for the eyes.

  Hide contents

 

6) Please, refrain from using stealth monsters. They are really bad in the terms of Doom's design. This is not fun to have fully invisible enemy that can be seen only while attacking or gaining some damage.

If you want to use somewhat cool Spectres analogues, then you can place usual Demons and tweak their rendering settings a bit. Here is a "translucent" render style that is equals to 0.1:

  Hide contents

A lot more spooky and seems somewhat fair, since you can see them... Right?

 

7) A small suggestion to turn all "fully solid" structures in to solid walls (with void behind them), since GZDoom can have cool shadows from dynamic lights, but only if you have solid walls. It not gonna work with sectors with height = 0 (when height of ceiling and floor are same).

  Hide contents

 

All of these points just my humble personal opinion, but I think that if you gonna use UDMF, then you can let yourself to put more "bells & whistles" on the map here & there.

After all, map itself was neat and I like some of its places due to their atmosphere.

Can't say much about balance, since I played with gameplay mods, but I had hard time twice: In the lava cave and in the final area (before Cyberdemon fight).

 

Additional pros for you for including all the needed textures without having to load entire "O-Tex" with the map.

And thanks for some kind of "story" that you attached to your map. It is always nice to read those.

Good first attempt with UDMF and I hope that you not gonna abandon it in the future.

Not a grain of salt was taken, all legit comments!

 

Snow buildup: absolutely. Usually in conventional engines i'd do it via vertex/frag shader to simulate inflation and smooth blends around dot product thresholds. Here.. yes i saw that detailing would require more meticulous linedefing. Was afraid that other parts would require the same approach and love and was afraid i'd never be able to finish it. USUALLY i spend too much attention on details first, here i decided to iterate faster and have raw visuals and at least release something in the end. 

 

Bookshelves: yes, it was me slapping OTEX here and there like some expressionist resulting in some crazy, illogical combinations. Will have to revisit it.

 

Adding more dynamic lights and glow: absolutely! Indeed looks juicier. Didn't know about floor glow, need to play with it properly.

 

Solid geometry: absolutely had no idea about it. Noted, and thanks for letting me know!

 

As for the video itself i must admit the mod looks very impressive! That haze instead of point lights is just *chef's kiss*. And the berserk area.. woah.. I want that blood fall texture!  

 

PS Nice save names ;)

PSS I also saw you noticed every single incorrect texture, repeatble linedefs etc. If only AAA games were playtested like this

Edited June 1, 2023 by StellarWind

[StellarWind]

4 hours ago, Wo0p said:

  Reveal hidden contents

 

Hey this was awesome! Especially considering this was your first mapping attempt. You have a definite knack for creating interesting and stimulating architecture. Loved the look and feel of the map :)

I would agree with @RastaManGaming that the borders between snow and stone could use some building up of snow at the base. Hard to do if you don't have the textures for it though (I don't remember if OTEX has that.. hm) but I'm sure you'll figure out to smooth out transitions like that as you make more maps (If you do make more!)

As for gameplay and difficulty, it's quite an easy map right up until the last fights (Played on UV GZDoom with freelook btw!). One of my few suggestions for you to improve the map would perhaps to be increasing the difficulty leading up to the last fights. Maybe add two more Hellknights at the blue skull key fight and some pinkies or lost souls at the yellow one. Just a suggestion. It kinda gives the player a notion that things are heating up now!

 

Stealth monsters are indeed highly contentious but I didn't mind them as there's really not a lot of them and at least they are melee monsters so you kinda know where they're going to go (In your face!).

 

Oh and I found a bug. Don't open if you don't wanna be spoiled by the map fellow Doomers.

  Reveal hidden contents

You can pick up the blue armor in the library before you open the secret door.

 

That's all I think. Great first map :) Hope you make more

Thank you!! And yes OTEX got everything i need. Actual skills and energy is what's left and desired ;) I will definitely revisit a skull fight with a poor solo archvile popping out.. Which is basically a laugh into a face of any respectable doom player. And that gosh dern collision bug.. Still getting used to engine shenanigans i guess.

 

STEALTH PINKIES ARE GOING AWAY AS SOON AS I GET TO MY PC GOT IT :D Why do they even exist in the first place? Never seen them in og wads or maybe didn't look properly?

 

3 hours ago, rita remton said:

hi! just played this map. very impressive for a first map. some of the monster placements has that level usually not associated with an amateur wad. and i do like the awesome aesthetics! perhaps map flow needs some reworking, but the rest is quite ok imo. thank you for making and sharing this map :)

 

Much appreciated and thanks for playing! I'm amazed by all kind comments and valid criticism <3 I will definitely rework a little some lighting, texture work. Going back to a project that was proclaimed somewhat "done-ish" definitely requires a certain state of mind though. Can't imagine the sheer dedication when people work on big boi 32 level megawads.

Edited June 1, 2023 by StellarWind

[StardustJessie]

Just played it through and it's pretty good! Nice visuals, and really satisfied with the gameplay. It was challenging at keypoints and saw the best use of an archville. I do think the final battle was meh but besides that it was all really awesome and I had a fun time. 

[StellarWind]

@RastaManGames

Added some juice as per your suggestions. Also fixed some bad textures you noticed on your video. Floor glow indeed looks nice but i'll be damned if it's not a pain to setup. Requires decreasing brightness of sidedefs specifically and damn.. Need to learn how to efficiently work with brightness.

Spoiler

 

Other minor changelog:

• Invis pinky is no more! Learnt how to apply translucency and fuzz properly.
• Added some spice and friends to a poor archvile defending yellow skull.

 

Edited June 1, 2023 by StellarWind

[SakuraFalls]

Hi, considering that the OP has made changes to the WAD.
While also listening to our suggestions. Free Bump! ^-^

[Wo0p]

The thlot pickens! Imma play right away :) Will edit this post once complete to avoid double posterinos.

 

EDITED:

 

Ooooooooooh! Veddy nais. The fights are a definite improvement in building up the difficulty imo, nicely chosen monsters for it also :) and the lighting or... "lighting" and/or both was also a visual treat of an upgrade. The final room looks especially spicy! Awesome work. Also I found the Plasma Rifle this time :O

 

And you fixed the blue armor pickup! ;) Nice

 

Suggestions my prenatal alcoholism brain (I don't actually suffer from this but shhhh) couldn't conjure up last time:

Plasma Rifle isn't a secret? Huh?!

But the Raucket Lawncher is? Wuuuuh?!

Perhaps drop in a green armor after each "wave" in the:

Spoiler

Penultimate fight. Given how armor and health works this isn't a fight reset so much as damage relief to potentially dwindling limited health supply! Just a thought though. It's your fight design :)

 

... Ok I'll stop now. But also the lack of snow splash onto mountain sides makes me a sad doge ;(

 

Penultimate score! 8/10

Reserving the 9/10 for the final touches to be ironed out.

Reserving 10/10 for... I dunno... something that makes me cry, laugh and defecate all at once. Which is not something you should aim for imo o_o

Edited June 2, 2023 by Wo0p

[SakuraFalls]

Hi, I really think it's time we get this WAD viral :3

[StellarWind]

3 hours ago, Wo0p said:

The thlot pickens! Imma play right away :) Will edit this post once complete to avoid double posterinos.

 

EDITED:

 

Ooooooooooh! Veddy nais. The fights are a definite improvement in building up the difficulty imo, nicely chosen monsters for it also :) and the lighting or... "lighting" and/or both was also a visual treat of an upgrade. The final room looks especially spicy! Awesome work. Also I found the Plasma Rifle this time :O

 

And you fixed the blue armor pickup! ;) Nice

 

Suggestions my prenatal alcoholism brain (I don't actually suffer from this but shhhh) couldn't conjure up last time:

Plasma Rifle isn't a secret? Huh?!

But the Raucket Lawncher is? Wuuuuh?!

Perhaps drop in a green armor after each "wave" in the:

  Reveal hidden contents

Penultimate fight. Given how armor and health works this isn't a fight reset so much as damage relief to potentially dwindling limited health supply! Just a thought though. It's your fight design :)

 

... Ok I'll stop now. But also the lack of snow splash onto mountain sides makes me a sad doge ;(

 

Penultimate score! 8/10

Reserving the 9/10 for the final touches to be ironed out.

Reserving 10/10 for... I dunno... something that makes me cry, laugh and defecate all at once. Which is not something you should aim for imo o_o

 

The sector with plasma rifle is a secret now, as it should've been in first place. And yeah, I also had thoughts about giving some armor for clearing a wave. Now clearing wave #2 spawns an extra green armor (dont think two archies would mind). Many thanks for the pieces of advice! And 10/10 sounds like a holy grail, a doomfection.. Something desired but almost not achievable (and probably for the best :p )

 

And no harm in a tiny little bit of alcoholism. I have a few beers and Nostalgia.wad waiting for me this evening..

 

24 minutes ago, SakuraFalls said:

Hi, I really think it's time we get this WAD viral :3

 

You, guys, playing this is the equivalent of going viral for me <3 This is my first experience of releasing anything to public and i must admit it's quite emotional. Would love to build something truly worthy in future.

[Wo0p]

8 minutes ago, StellarWind said:

 

The sector with plasma rifle is a secret now, as it should've been in first place. And yeah, I also had thoughts about giving some armor for clearing a wave. Now clearing wave #2 spawns an extra green armor (dont think two archies would mind). Many thanks for the pieces of advice! And 10/10 sounds like a holy grail, a doomfection.. Something desired but almost not achievable (and probably for the best :p )

 

And no harm in a tiny little bit of alcoholism. I have a few beers and Nostalgia.wad waiting for me this evening..

 

 

You, guys, playing this is the equivalent of going viral for me <3 This is my first experience of releasing anything to public and i must admit it's quite emotional. Would love to build something truly worthy in future.

 

Sounds great with the additions \o/ !

 

Final score in that case: 9/10 :D

 

And I know the feeling, I recently also released my first WAD and it was nervewracking and heartwarming all at once hahah, glad you're enjoying it overall though as I would love to see more maps from you :) I hope you continue this journey so I can play more of your variety of D00m in the future (No pressure though, take your time and be inspired by the muses). 

[SakuraFalls]

Hi, I'll keep this alive ^-^

[StellarWind]

Much appreciated <3

 

While it's alive I could ask a question. For lulz ran this map with Brutal Doom v.21 and none of the pick-up-the-key-lower-the-floors actions have worked (resulting in a soft block in blue skull area). Mb someone has a slightest idea on what's happening?

[rekojes728]

Hey there!

 

I just finished the whole map on UV. The design of the environment of this wad, going from an open snowy field into industrial (and satanic) caverns, is greatly done and made me interested in exploring the map as I went from demon group to demon group. You did really well on the layout and textures of each map section, bringing a good amount of variety and memorability.

 

My only grip is really just the same as others in this thread have mentioned: the enemy and cover placement makes certain sections a bit too easy, for example the industrial lava area behind the blue key door. There's plenty of space to move around and the demons are place quite far between each other, making it almost impossible to get damaged even once by them. Contrast that to the final area with the summoning arena and the cyberdemon room, where you're constantly on the edge as one wrong move could get you shredded if you weren't careful enough. It's definitely my favorite section gameplay-wise.

 

Reducing the ammo amount across the board slightly and/or hiding it behind secrets also wouldn't hurt to make it more tense regarding resource management, as currently ammo for all weapons is really abundant and you're not really forced to watch your ammo or think about when to use a certain weapon to preserve rarer ammo for when you really need it.

 

But other than that, this map is high quality considering it's your very first. You definitely have a lot of potential in doom mapping. I'll definitely be on the lookout for your future maps.

 

PS: I found missing side-textures for the bookshelves in the library room with the pinkies, when you find the invisibility secret.

 

Spoiler