[Community Project] VANITY

[EPICALLL]

9 minutes ago, CrazedCleric said:

I've got a tentative first version of Map 23. Tested on the latest prboom+ (comp 9) and GZDoom (boom comp).

 

Author(s): CrazedCleric
Difficulty Settings: Implemented (+coop/deathmatch starts)
Map Name: Verloren
MIDI Used: Warped Mind by Psychedelic Eyeball
Description: From the ruination of the far future emerges a vestige of a war long past. An old bunker sleeps in the dead, charred earth poking through the ash.
Author's Comments: Kind of a toughie. I'm a bit on the fence about being more generous with pickups.

 

Vanity_m23.zip

I'll check it out when I get home on Monday.

[SMG_Man]

7 hours ago, CrazedCleric said:

I've got a tentative first version of Map 23.

 

I played your map on HMP via GZDoom (no freelook/jump/crouch). It's definitely on the harder side in my appraisal (though for full disclosure, I don't generally play custom levels, so I have no idea what the difficulty landscape is like beyond "harder than Doom 1/Doom 2"). Your architecture and atmosphere are pretty solid, and I dig the choice of midi. A few concrete thoughts:

 

Spoiler

• The archvile/baron trap near the beginning felt a bit ballbustery... until I went back up the steps and was able to pretty safely plink off the archvile from the high ground; not sure if that's the intended strat or not.
• Similarly the part with the archviles immediately after the revenant/chaingunner trap felt even more ballbustery, though for that one I didn't have a good answer besides reloading my save a few dozen times and letting my blood pressure lower after it was over.
• I was going to say "I think the plasma gun could be handed to the player a little earlier in the level", then I went back and checked the two secrets I missed. Having done that though, the last one (the soulsphere on a ledge) definitely seems a little awful/not really worth it until after all the action is taken care of, at which point... it feels a little superfluous.
• Lastly, I think some of the Barons of Hell could be exchanged with Hell Knights; if not on all difficulties, at least on HMP and lower. They're generally non-threatening outside of the extremely cramped parts of the map (and even then it's usually not too bad taking them down), but when you have limited rockets on hand the process can get a bit tedious.

 

Nice map!

[NotDeadYet]

8 hours ago, CrazedCleric said:

I've got a tentative first version of Map 23. Tested on the latest prboom+ (comp 9) and GZDoom (boom comp).

 

Author(s): CrazedCleric
Difficulty Settings: Implemented (+coop/deathmatch starts)
Map Name: Verloren
MIDI Used: Warped Mind by Psychedelic Eyeball
Description: From the ruination of the far future emerges a vestige of a war long past. An old bunker sleeps in the dead, charred earth poking through the ash.
Author's Comments: Kind of a toughie. I'm a bit on the fence about being more generous with pickups.

 

Vanity_m23.zip

Kicked my ass dawg, I mean I did it. 100% kills even if it meant infighting when I had no ammo and single digit health which I was on for quite the majority of the level. Also I've got to change up my map once more and up my difficulty game yo.

[Proxy-MIDI]

Can someone bring another link for the texture pack please ? I can't open it. 

[Doomy__Doom]

19 hours ago, CrazedCleric said:

I've got a tentative first version of Map 23. Tested on the latest prboom+ (comp 9) and GZDoom (boom comp).

 

Author(s): CrazedCleric
Difficulty Settings: Implemented (+coop/deathmatch starts)
Map Name: Verloren
MIDI Used: Warped Mind by Psychedelic Eyeball
Description: From the ruination of the far future emerges a vestige of a war long past. An old bunker sleeps in the dead, charred earth poking through the ash.
Author's Comments: Kind of a toughie. I'm a bit on the fence about being more generous with pickups.

 

Vanity_m23.zip

I'll spoiler some thoughts.

Spoiler

In short, everything after blue door is great, but before blue door is quite ammo starved. I explicitly played without secrets (i.e. I found them, but didn't use).

 

First of all - some of the barons really don't need to be. Like the ones in the cave leading to the BK. Especially the ones at the very first Vile trap - HK's would still work and lead to the same gameplay - don't wake up everything, lure away or stand on the corpse to deny raise - but leave some ammo for upcoming combat without adding pickups. Now that I've written it, I checked UDB and see you already are doing exactly this on lower difficulties in these exact 2 places. I leave the first swich area with around 35 vs 21 shells on HNTR vs UV.

 

I found myself stuck in the room that opens "red lights" door with almost no ammo at one point as I woke up the Vile at the same time as I was forced back into the room by incoming projectiles, which lead to quick fatty resurrections I was powerless to stop. Cue open-close door gameplay to get infights and make the Vile raise shotgunners over and over for some ammo. No Vile on HMP/HNTR is certainly a good call here. Those extra 14 shells discussed above would be a nice buffer for that upcoming Vile who can easily raise ammo sink enemies in the next room.

 

At this point myself (and I suspect many a UV player will) comes to expect dickish Viles x ammo deprivation. Hence I started ignoring enemies outside unless they are actually in the way. Anyone who doesn't might find themselves hardstuck in the bunker trap after HKs and a side switch. I ended up inadvertedly luring revs outside as I was on the fence expecting another Vile, which thankfully wasn't there, as I tripped the Vile possibly meant for that trap before killing HK trio and thus dealt with him first.

 

From that point, it's mostly smooth and even exciting sailing, like I said earlier fights past BD were enjoyable (I did save some rockets though). Well except the lone Cyber in big open space, that's kind of nothing at this point in Doom's lifetime.

 

My suggestions to ease up ammo deprivation vibe would be to:
1) as discussed above - lose some barons.
2) give away plasma openly (maybe with less ammo, like 80 total) after the 1st vile and put something else (zerk? blue face?) in the secret. It's an extremely difficulty-warping secret as is, imo it's better to make it an official "one-encounter panic button" and let the player agonize over where to burn it.
3) replace RK plasma with BFG if you intend to keep just the cyber. Streamlines the cleanup, which is the only thing that'd be left at this point.
4) definitely add HMP/HNTR-exclusive ammo pickups (I'd say to the upper plateau for on-demand access), even if nothing else is changed.

 

[CrazedCleric]

Thanks for the quick feedback fellas. I've made some changes and made some of the more teeth grinding segments more manageable.

21 hours ago, CrazedCleric said:

Author(s): CrazedCleric
Difficulty Settings: Implemented (+coop/deathmatch starts)
Map Name: Verloren
MIDI Used: Warped Mind by Psychedelic Eyeball
Description: From the ruination of the far future emerges a vestige of a war long past. An old bunker sleeps in the dead, charred earth poking through the ash.
Author's Comments: Kind of a toughie. I'm a bit on the fence about being more generous with pickups.

 

Vanity_m23v2.zip

 

Changelog:

Spoiler

v1

-First complete version of map

 

v2 (this one)

-Replaced secret plasma gun with soulsphere (and armor on lower diffs)
-Added plasma gun to offset second vile trap (80 cells on hard)
-Removed barons from first vile trap on hard (knights on all settings now)
-Added rockets+cells on ridge for easier diffs
-Replaced red skull plasma gun with BFG (Spiced up cybie fight too)
-Fixed at texture error in second generator room
-Replaced a couple revenants in bunker trap with pinkies
-Added hole in knight pillbox (adds more movement options for bunker trap, makes clearing knights less tedious)
-Removed one baron from blue cave on HMP (one knight, one baron easier to chew)
-Added knights to third vile ambush (just realized as of writing that I might like viles too much) on lower settings
-Added extra shells on UV to assist with chewing third vile ambush barons
-Replaced stimpak with medkit just outside second vile trap on UV
-Added another secret (might nerf reward as it's easy to find)

-Changed red key secret from soulsphere it invul

 

[EPICALLL]

On 9/3/2023 at 3:06 PM, CrazedCleric said:

Thanks for the quick feedback fellas. I've made some changes and made some of the more teeth grinding segments more manageable.

 

Vanity_m23v2.zip

 

Changelog:

  Reveal hidden contents

v1

-First complete version of map

 

v2 (this one)

-Replaced secret plasma gun with soulsphere (and armor on lower diffs)
-Added plasma gun to offset second vile trap (80 cells on hard)
-Removed barons from first vile trap on hard (knights on all settings now)
-Added rockets+cells on ridge for easier diffs
-Replaced red skull plasma gun with BFG (Spiced up cybie fight too)
-Fixed at texture error in second generator room
-Replaced a couple revenants in bunker trap with pinkies
-Added hole in knight pillbox (adds more movement options for bunker trap, makes clearing knights less tedious)
-Removed one baron from blue cave on HMP (one knight, one baron easier to chew)
-Added knights to third vile ambush (just realized as of writing that I might like viles too much) on lower settings
-Added extra shells on UV to assist with chewing third vile ambush barons
-Replaced stimpak with medkit just outside second vile trap on UV
-Added another secret (might nerf reward as it's easy to find)

-Changed red key secret from soulsphere it invul

 

good map. I add. no additonal comments added. reason: lazy

[RileyXY1]

I just started my map. I'm repurposing some concepts from my scrapped submission for 666Secrets here.

[Proxy-MIDI]

:ahem: Can someone bring another link for the texture pack please ? I can't open it. 

[EPICALLL]

1 hour ago, Proxy-MIDI said:

:ahem: Can someone bring another link for the texture pack please ? I can't open it. 

https://www.doomworld.com/forum/topic/124425-32in24-15tex-v2-but-its-different-softfx-expansion-for-mappers/

[SMG_Man]

@Doomy__Doom hope I'm not bugging you in asking this, but do you have a visual theme in mind for your map (32)? Based on the texture pack we have and the project specifications, it would be pretty easy to do either an Egypt or snow-themed map for the secret level slots without importing more resources, so I figured I might do one of those for mine (31).

Edited September 11, 2023 by SMG_Man

[Doomy__Doom]

7 hours ago, SMG_Man said:

@Doomy__Doom hope I'm not bugging you in asking this, but do you have a visual theme in mind for your map (32)? Based on the texture pack we have and the project specifications, it would be pretty easy to do either an Egypt or snow-themed map for the secret level slots without importing more resources, so I figured I might do one of those for mine (31). 

I'm still in prototyping fights/gathering inspiration without a specific theme in mind stage. Feel free to pick any theme you'd like.

[EPICALLL]

4 hours ago, Doomy__Doom said:

I'm still in prototyping fights/gathering inspiration without a specific theme in mind stage. Feel free to pick any theme you'd like.

Let me preface by saying that picking whatever you like is the whole point of the secret maps.

[NullTheShadow]

Quick update: haven't worked much on the map (map 28) in a while mainly because I haven't had any good ideas for it until just last night. But as of right now I have the rest of the map mapped out in my head.

[EPICALLL]

1 hour ago, NullTheShadow said:

Quick update: haven't worked much on the map (map 28) in a while mainly because I haven't had any good ideas for it until just last night. But as of right now I have the rest of the map mapped out in my head.

Cool! Looking forward to it!

[wumbo]

Okay, it's been a month since I joined this community projects, and I haven't made too much progress simply because I have been focusing on design and aesthetic to match the kick-ass MIDI that I made rather than fights and all that crap. Since it's been a month, boss says that he needs an update, so here are some screenshots.

Spoiler

 

Hell, I'll even add a link to my MIDI file, I feel as if it can't goo unnoticed because of how much I love it.

 

Spoiler

 

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1JrUMZjA2IjuARgZI4SQDyIIRwIkhnXKu/view?usp=sharing

 

 

[EPICALLL]

2 hours ago, wumbo said:

Okay, it's been a month since I joined this community projects, and I haven't made too much progress simply because I have been focusing on design and aesthetic to match the kick-ass MIDI that I made rather than fights and all that crap. Since it's been a month, boss says that he needs an update, so here are some screenshots.

  Reveal hidden contents

 

Hell, I'll even add a link to my MIDI file, I feel as if it can't goo unnoticed because of how much I love it.

 

  Reveal hidden contents

 

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1JrUMZjA2IjuARgZI4SQDyIIRwIkhnXKu/view?usp=sharing

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks for the update, your map is looking great so far! Keep it up!
Also, that MIDI is absolutely as cool as you say it is, the power chords in the middle third especially get my gears going.

[Heretic926]

Status report: MAP02 is going steadily. Instead of empty space like in Scythe X, it's a moon base! There's no moon rock textures in 32-in-24 tex, so I improvising with snow textures, which works surprisingly well. Screenies below (very early look so there's a lot of work to do).

Spoiler

 

 

 

Edited September 12, 2023 by Heretic926

[EPICALLL]

1 hour ago, Heretic926 said:

Status report: MAP02 is going steadily. Instead of empty space like in Scythe X, it's a moon base! There's no moon rock textures in 32-in-24 tex, so I improvising with snow textures, which works surprisingly well. Screenies below (very early look so there's a lot of work to do).

  Hide contents

 

 

 

me like. moon good.

[Proxy-MIDI]

On 9/7/2023 at 2:37 PM, EPICALLL said:

https://www.doomworld.com/forum/topic/124425-32in24-15tex-v2-but-its-different-softfx-expansion-for-mappers/

 

Huh... There is a major problem. This texture pack has no more textures. I tested your map with that and none appeared. Moreover, when I tried to use it for my map, nothing was present. 

[EPICALLL]

54 minutes ago, Proxy-MIDI said:

 

Huh... There is a major problem. This texture pack has no more textures. I tested your map with that and none appeared. Moreover, when I tried to use it for my map, nothing was present. 

Definitely a problem with your computer, then. I don't know what to tell you, I can't help you.

[NecrumWarrior]

I was on the fence about joining this project, but I rather like the idea of building a time machine. I'll take MAP10 please. 

[EPICALLL]

3 hours ago, NecrumWarrior said:

I was on the fence about joining this project, but I rather like the idea of building a time machine. I'll take MAP10 please. 

Ok, have at it!

[Proxy-MIDI]

Is there any possibility to have a custom sky for my map ? I would like to have the outer space to have a background for fitting the theme. 

[EPICALLL]

45 minutes ago, Proxy-MIDI said:

Is there any possibility to have a custom sky for my map ? I would like to have the outer space to have a background for fitting the theme. 

I specifically said to use whatever sky as long as it fits in the OP.

[dmh094]

I'l take map 05 :) 

 

[EPICALLL]

6 minutes ago, dmh094 said:

I'l take map 05 :) 

 

K

[dmh094]

or any map involving a castle like aesthetic. Any of those? 

[dmh094]

what about dust and decay? any chance of a castle map in that episode? 

 

[dmh094]

Well, no patch file in the texture pack so :/