MIDNIGHT - 7 maps in the gloom (+new vanilla version)

[EANB]

Download here: midnight.zip

Or from idgames: https://www.doomworld.com/idgames/levels/doom2/Ports/m-o/midnight

 

Alternative fully vanilla compatible version: midnightV.zip

 

Have you ever wanted to explore an abstract prison-town in the dead of night? Now you can!

 

Midnight features 7 maps of Doom action with a dark backdrop. Each map is relatively short and aims to present fun and challenging encounters with small numbers of monsters (every map has less than 120 enemies). Despite the theming, it's not a horror wad and you typically won't have visibility issues. Difficulty scales up to be around Plutonia level, I think (maybe a bit easier than Glaive 3).

 

Visually, I took a lot of inspiration from Doom 2 in Spain Only. I acknowledge I've used a lot of brown here, but I've tried to insert some red, green, and white where appropriate. Map 4 was particularly inspired by Nostalgia map 16. All the music comes from the Raven Midi Pack.

 

Info:

Difficulty levels are supported.

Compatibility: limit-removing, Doom 2 (cl2). Tested in DSDA and GZDoom. Please let me know if there is a port it doesn't work in.

Designed for pistol starts, but play how you want. Continuous play will just be easier.

No jumping, please.

 

Co-op is supported but untested.

 

Screenshots:

 

Changelog:

Spoiler

 

v1.1

Fixed a softlock on map 4.

Slightly upped the difficulty on UV.

Map 3: removed 5 rockets

Map 4: replaced a megasphere with a soulsphere, replaced berserk with green armor, replaced health bonuses with armor bonuses.

Map 5: replaced a soulsphere with a medkit

Map 7: replaced 2 megaspheres with 2 soulspheres and green armor.

 

v.1.2

Removed overly grainy blood flat

Fixed an out of place brick flat in map 1

Prevented lowering the blue key from the ground level on map 4

 

 

Download: midnight.zip

 

Edited December 15, 2023 by EANB

[Egg Boy]

Just finished it! Took about 45 minutes, really good stuff, just the sort of thing I like, short maps with some ripping combat, especially later on. Keep up the good work, I'm a big fan of your maps.

[Firedust]

D2TWID but someone forgot to turn on the lights?

Screenshots look slick as hell!

[DreadWanderer]

Love the screenies, gonna give this a go soon.

[Bank]

Playing through and really enjoying! Found a softlock on MAP04:

 

Spoiler

Taking the teleporter behind the green armor from the underground yellow key chamber results in the player being locked in the secret!

 

 

[Riclo500]

Very cool maps so far big guy, I like the dark atmosphere.

 

Spoiler

 

 

Spoiler

 

 

[EANB]

Thanks for the feedback!

 

7 hours ago, Bank said:

Playing through and really enjoying! Found a softlock on MAP04:

 

  Hide contents

Taking the teleporter behind the green armor from the underground yellow key chamber results in the player being locked in the secret!

 

 

Oops, that happens when you don't pick up the yellow key first. I've updated and fixed this.

 

I also made a few tweaks to the difficulty on UV in later maps. 4 megaspheres on map 7 was a little too generous in retrospect.

Edited September 13, 2023 by EANB

[Breezeep]

Just wrapped up my playtrough. Good stuff! Really tight gameplay here, but it kinda got a bit hectic in some bits. One nitpick I have is that the blood flat looks a bit off:

 

Spoiler

It looks like you grabbed a bunch of stuff from the 32in24 resource wad. I think putting in the 32in24 palette should fix this.

Edited September 13, 2023 by Breezeep

[EANB]

4 hours ago, Breezeep said:

Just wrapped up my playtrough. Good stuff! Really tight gameplay here, but it kinda got a bit hectic in some bits. One nitpick I have is that the blood flat looks a bit off:

 

  Reveal hidden contents

It looks like you grabbed a bunch of stuff from the 32in24 resource wad. I think putting in the 32in24 palette should fix this.

You are right! I had thought the blood was looking more grainy than I remembered, but chalked it up to the dim lighting. I want to keep the palette vanilla, so I'll just remove the modified flats.

Edited September 13, 2023 by EANB

[DoomBerry]

On map03 and really enjoying the maps so far. Great tricks and traps and clever jumps required.

Nicely done!

 

[Maribo]

It's always a nice surprise to get new EANB maps. :)

Good stuff as always, I'm particularly fond of the graveyard map and the map that starts with a few archviles chasing you down. Definitely easier than the latter half of Glaive 3, but makes its own identity out of the layouts and lower lighting mood.

I did some -dsdademo FDAs (v0.26.2) on the original version before the WAD was updated, so I've included it here for playback purposes - midnight_maribo.zip

[EANB]

16 hours ago, DoomBerry said:

On map03 and really enjoying the maps so far. Great tricks and traps and clever jumps required.

Nicely done!

 

Thanks for playing. I tend to like putting a few running jumps in my maps to increase the pace (though if vanilla 3D bridges were less of pain to make I would use those instead...).

 

15 hours ago, Maribo said:

It's always a nice surprise to get new EANB maps. :)

Good stuff as always, I'm particularly fond of the graveyard map and the map that starts with a few archviles chasing you down. Definitely easier than the latter half of Glaive 3, but makes its own identity out of the layouts and lower lighting mood.

I did some -dsdademo FDAs (v0.26.2) on the original version before the WAD was updated, so I've included it here for playback purposes - midnight_maribo.zip

Glad you enjoyed it and thanks for the demos. It's tuned a bit lower for sure, but I'm happy it caught you out a few times.

Edited September 14, 2023 by EANB

[Helm]

Yo I really really loved blasting through these. UV pistol starts with saves, one sitting all the way through. I don't really have any constructive feedback because I didn't find anything off, so here's just a load of praise to pile on with the rest of the thread. Snappy, low-monster count FUN layout maps, verging onto challenge wad territory towards the end, but in terms of difficulty It was well within 'saving before big fights' range for me. I much enjoyed the workout and it's always inspirational to see interesting layouts, good perched archvile usage, to be challenged by 20-30 monsters in a situation in a way that requires good movement. I think I'll keep this one in my folder, I want to replay it, so that's some extra praise besides for the immediate fun that was had, a commitment for more fun in the future. Thank you for sharing your work with the rest of us for free, it's a real blessing.

[ryiron]

These are really good. Short and punchy, with some really nice layouts and fun combat. Playing was a bit off tonight, so enjoy a bunch of stupid deaths before I managed to complete each map: midnight-ryiron.zip. I went secret hunting, but didn't manage to find all of them.

[pantheon]

Decided to pile on with some blind FDAs too. First time sharing any demos, actually! I recorded with Nugget Doom but they seem to play in DSDA.

 

I really enjoyed these maps. I love the night aesthetic which emphasized your tasteful use of lighting. Concise levels that were fun to navigate and taut encounters which did a lot with not too many enemies kept me on the hook. My favorite map was probably MAP04, slaying the graveyard until it rose again. And I always appreciate hearing some Raven music, too. Very good!

 

midnight_pantheon.zip

Edited September 15, 2023 by pantheon

[Riclo500]

Spoiler

 

Very cool spooky map

[DreadWanderer]

I said I'd play it and I did. It's consistently excellent, with tough, cramped, but fair fights. Adrenaline-pumping, puzzle-like combat. Superlative use of arch-viles for those anxiety-inducing but energizing segments. I think my favorite maps were 'Untended Graves' and 'Prison Break!' for their cinematic flair, but this whole wad is all killer no filler. I really want to do a UV-max saveless run, but it's quite intimidating. We'll see :D

Edit: yeah nevermind, challenge accepted. First 4 maps are up:

https://youtu.be/4VroD31L25M?feature=shared

https://youtu.be/XIK-QPg2zCU?feature=shared

https://youtu.be/tRemzqdbDmc?feature=shared

 

https://youtu.be/XtMbXzcJ27k?feature=shared

Edited September 16, 2023 by DreadWanderer

[Rex705]

Very cool maps. I always like nighttime-themed maps, it brings out all the lighting.

 

 

[DreadWanderer]

Managed to complete my UV-max playthrough, here is the playlist:
 

Delicious stuff.

[nobleflame]

Looks great. Going to play later.

[EANB]

Thanks for all the playthroughs, I took the time to watch as many demos and videos as I could. I updated the download with some very minor fixes which should be the final version I'll put on the archives.

 

Just to clarify, in map 4 it is intentionally possible to run up the gravestone to the mancubus platform or to strafejump to the switch from the other building. I wasn't sure how clear progression to the blue key was, so I left in a few extra ways for players to hopefully stumble into it (though activating the lift switch from the low ground was not intentional, which I've fixed). 

[DreadWanderer]

30 minutes ago, EANB said:

Thanks for all the playthroughs, I took the time to watch as many demos and videos as I could. I updated the download with some very minor fixes which should be the final version I'll put on the archives.

 

Just to clarify, in map 4 it is intentionally possible to run up the gravestone to the mancubus platform or to strafejump to the switch from the other building. I wasn't sure how clear progression to the blue key was, so I left in a few extra ways for players to hopefully stumble into it (though activating the lift switch from the low ground was not intentional, which I've fixed). 

 

I haven't done this in my playthrough, but I have to admit I did try some morbidly curious stuff like running off the gravestones in the blind run. Thanks for the update!

Edited September 17, 2023 by DreadWanderer

[Riclo500]

Fun stuff!

 

Spoiler

 

 

Spoiler

 

 

Spoiler

 

 

[Meyland12]

Cool maps set in night time. I esciaplly enjoyed map 4 becuase of fights and cemenetry section where monsters show up.

[EANB]

Final version now on idgames: https://www.doomworld.com/idgames/levels/doom2/Ports/m-o/midnight

[ghettog]

I am trying to get better at playing Doom, and this pack really helped.

[plums]

Just went through these, really great stuff. I've been aware of the Glaive series but never actually played them, guess I had better remedy that soon!

[Firedust]

Finally played through this (damn you, backlog). This is my favourite thing you've released so far.  Some of the best lightingwork I've seen in a mapset. Fantastic stuff.

[Somniac]

Seconding the above comment, I'm up to MAP05 or 06 and this is just as much a banger as Glaive III, though this wins out by a hair for me for the nocturnal setting and great use of lighting.

[loveless]

played sometime last week and forgot to post! a nice, quick hit.  had a good time and slammed it out fast.  agree with remarks about Glaive 3 too, of course